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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/jpitha on 2025-06-25 13:46:00+00:00.
N’ren and Xar
For once, it wasn’t another empty system with only a Gate to its name.
It was uninhabited, however.
The system’s G-type star was in the middle of its life, and utterly unremarkable. The system held three rocky planets, with one even in the Human/K’laxi/Xenni habitation zone. However, as near as any scans could tell, the planet was utterly devoid of life. There was water, and a water cycle enough that wispy clouds floated in the atmosphere, but the surface was stone and dirt and mud. Nothing living in the land, sea, or air.
But, there was a Gate in the system, and it was relatively close to Parvati, so the humans could make it there in just two wormhole links and be quite accurate. A fine location for a joint station to promote commingling and cultural exchange.
Each group had contributed to the station. The K’laxi and Xenni each brought large modules with them, towing them through the Gate and connecting in turn. The humans with their usual flare for the dramatic installed wormhole generators - plural - into their module and linked it into place with a blinding flash of white and smug smiles. It was three times larger than the K’laxi and Xenni section and more than twenty kilometers tall.
N’ren stepped through the docking umbilical from her ship, Len’itent onto Concurrency. She wasn’t sure about the name, but the humans explained that it meant more than one thing happening at a time, and that seemed fitting for the station that would be shared by all three peoples. She stepped into the station, and it had this smell; chemicals and glues and plastic and people. It wasn’t bad, but it was noticeable. As she cleared the umbilical a human in a sharp uniform walked up to her.
“Commander Kitani? I am Erin Hollister, and I am here on behalf of Concurrency’s station authority to welcome and guide you. Did you have a good trip?” She inclined her head slightly and N’ren could see that her right hear had K’laxi style earrings that flashed and shined in the artificial lighting.
“Thank you Ms Hollister-” The honorific felt odd for N’ren to say, but that’s how the humans did it. “-My trip was fine. We ran into a few stragglers from the rebellion, but nothing to worry about.”
Erin’s eyebrows raised slightly. For all she knew, N’ren had come from K’lax direct.
“I had to make a slight detour before we arrived from K’lax. Please do not worry; we took care of them.” N’ren said by way of explanation.
“Do you have need for anything before I bring you to Administration? A meal?”
“We just had first meal aboard Len’itent, I’m fine.”
“This way please.” Ms Hollister gestured gently, and N’ren followed her gaze to a small electric wheeled cart. Erin sat in the front seat in front of the steering wheel, and N’ren got into the seat opposite her. “Concurrency is one of the largest stations outside of Sol, so it’ll be a bit of a drive. We’ll have mass transit connected soon, and things will be much less ad hoc then.”
As N’ren was driven through the station, she marveled at how big it was. She had entered though the human sector, and the place was light, airy, and most of all, large. High ceilings, bright lights and what eventually would be greenery seemed to be everywhere. For now, it was a lot of wrapped plastic, boxes and cables strewn about, and people bustling to get the station completed. Erin took them down a few half constructed corridors (“for the train” she explained) and after nearly ten minutes, stopped in a large promenade.
Here, the K’laxi, Human, and Xenni stations connected together with gigantic airlocks and came together in one point. N’ren could see on the floor clearly where three different types of hullmetal met. “The concurrency point!” Erin said, grinning. “Get it? This is where we all come together.”
“I… see.” N’ren said. The humans sure love their wordplay, even when it didn’t translate very well. “Is this the location for the meeting?”
“Yes!” Erin practically jumped out of her seat. “Come with me Commander Kitani, I believe that Consortium Director Xar is already here.”
N’ren was led towards a reception hall, and off of it multiple conference rooms. In the back, along what she estimated was the outer hall was a large, bright conference room. When Erin opened the door, she gasped.
It had a real window.
Real windows are very rare in space. Cameras and screens work just as well, if not better, and then one does not have to deal with the large compromising hole in the hull to look out of. But, This one was actually a window, open to space, with the planet obscuring part of the star, almost like one of those things the humans described, an eclipse.
Xar stood in the room, back to the door facing the window, staring. When the door hissed open, he turned, and his detail claw clacked in recognition. “Commander Kitani! It is so good to see you again.” He roared, his bassy voice nearly causing N’ren’s fur to vibrate sympathetically.
N’ren ran up to Xar and gave him a quick hug. “It’s good to see you too, Xar. Or should I say, Consortium Director Xar.”
Xar’s chuckle nearly caused his shell to blur in vibration. “I have moved up in the world since last we spoke, but I can see that you have as well. How goes the rebellion? How goes your partner?”
“It goes.” N’ren said and broke off the hug. “We’ve taken back K’lax and two of the colony worlds. One is left that the original faction has taken as their base of operations. They have lost all of their ships, so they’re trapped. We’ve set up a blockade and when they’re ready to re-enter society, we’ll discuss terms.”
It had turned out that when a society makes AIs the operator of all their ships and stations, people who side with them get to keep using said ships and stations. After the initial bloodshed had died down, the pro-AI side had all of the advantages. N’ren’s Discoverer contacts indicated that a few known commanders and others had been… disposed of, but most everyone else was mostly frightened into compliance. Thanks to Xar’s influence, the Xenni refused to deal with the anti-AI faction, and the humans had turned their backs as well, so the anti-AI faction quickly fizzled and became a core of true believers. It had still taken the better part of a K’laxi year to get things calmed down, and it was far from over, but N’ren and Ko-tas felt the majority of the danger had passed.
“And Ko-tas? She usually accompanies you.”
“She’s busy back on Administration Station, rebuilding the Discoverers.” N’ren unconsciously touched her marital earrings. It took an enormous effort to slow-walk their relationship - N’ren was much more used to things going hot and heavy and burning out like an O-type blue star - but she felt it was worth it, for Ko-tas. Almost entirely by accident their roles had reversed. N’ren had been given command and was sent out to clean up the stragglers with her co-captain Len’itent and Ko-tas stayed back and began the long process of making the Discoverers a group that helps the K’laxi instead of one that merely makes them pliable to influence. “But enough about me, Xar, what about you? I heard your bloodling had their first molt.”
“Hah! He did. I was disappointed that you had to pass on the invitation, but I have plenty of images that I can show you after the meeting.” Xar tapped his pad. “Full video and even a sensorium if you want to experience it fully.”
Xar’s return to the Xenni had been fractious but he, as he loved to say, “bashed some shells” and with not a small amount of backroom dealings, got most of the Braccium to agree to end the war and pivot to profit through peace. N’ren had made some gentle inquiries with the Discoverers about it, and everything they found pointed it to being quite a bit more violent than that, but Xar never brought it up, and N’ren didn’t feel right pressing her friend for details.
“Oh, how interesting,” N’ren said, trying very hard to mask her expression. Xenni moltings were exciting, honorable, and messy affairs. “I’d love to see the images later.”
Xar stared at the window again and rumbled a sigh. “I wish Fran had survived to see this. I think she would have been a wonderful diplomat to have stationed here.” He turned to N’ren, “Did they ever tell you what really happened to her? All I got was that she perished in an accident shortly before Longview returned to Sol.
“They told me the same thing,” N’ren said, her ears flat. “I tried to call in a few favors, see if any of my Discoverer contacts had learned anything else, but everyone received the same information. Perished in an unfortunate accident.”
“Hmm.” Xar rumbled. “I suppose it’s possible, but it seems unlikely.” He sighed, “But maybe that’s really what happened.”
“My contacts reached out to any of the crew of Longview that they could reach, and the few that would talk said the same thing. Most wouldn’t even give people the time of day, no matter what was offered.” Gord had been right about how many humans felt about K’laxi, and the Discoverers soon found more than enough willing volunteers to seduce humans. It worked worryingly well.
They sat at the conference table, catching up on the past few years, and after nearly half an hour, the door slid open and Eri…
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