Iqi: Arrival

Chapter Nine

"Fuck! That little cunt planned this all along!" Hermione paced the room angrily.

"Calm down this was clearly something that was a long time coming," Dr. Willoughby said re watching the scenes with the Selkie in it from the press conference. "Obviously she meant to release this information slowly to the public, but Iqi's arrival delayed her plans and the recent hacking forced her to accelerate them. I doubt she did this with an malintent. If anything I'd say she looks quite reluctant to release this information."

"Still do you know what this means for Iqi! Know one's gonna want to see him anymore. All they're gonna care about are those stupid fucking Selkie!" Hermione ranted.

"People will obviously still love and care about Iqi. That doesn't go away just because he's no longer the brand new humanoid species. The only thing that might really change is the amount people are willing to pay to see him. But those sessions were never about the money. Right?" Dr. Willoughby said.

"Right," I agreed.

Hermione went silent, still steaming about the announcement of the Selkies. Personally I found them interesting. If they were cousins of humanity then they were cousins of mine as well. It seemed almost like the perfect fit. The skies for me, the land for man and the sea for the Selkie. I smiled at the thought of one day meeting these Selkie.

"I want to meet them," I told Dr. Willoughby.

"Of course you do," she smiled. "I'm sure that meeting is inevitable. It feels like so sort of metaphor huh. Sky and sea meeting for the first time."

"I was thinking the same thing!" I grinned.

She patted my head. "You're pretty clever Iqi. I wonder if the Selkie are at the same level of intelligence as us."

The doorbell suddenly rang.

"Finally the fucking food is here," Hermione grumbled getting up.

"Security will get it. You don't have to get up," Dr. Willoughby said.

"Yeah, but since you and Iqi decided you would order food for everyone they're probably gonna take their sweet time giving us our food," Hermione stalked off.

"Why is Hermione so upset ?" I sighed.

Dr. Willoughby didn't answer. But kept pausing and zooming in on different parts of the Selkie.

My wings flapped restlessly. Maybe Hermione was right. Maybe humans love for me was only temporary, so long as I was a novelty. I wondered if I could be happy knowing I was at least loved by my sister and Dr. Willoughby. A sudden pang in my heart told me otherwise. I loved humans, and I want them to love me too.

"Dr. Willoughby?" I asked.

"Yes, Iqi."

"Should I say something? Like to the public. About the Selkie."

Dr. Willoughby paused the tv and sat back thinking intently.

"I think you will be expected to," she finally said. "I wouldn't be surprised if a handful of speeches for you to give were being written right now by the HIC."

"The hic?" I asked.

She smiled at me. "It's an abbreviation of the Human Intergalactic Council. President Tapiwa will definitely give a speech either today or tomorrow. They'll probably want video footage of your meeting with Ms. Ahuja and the Selkie so you'll definitely be expected to give some kind of speech then or even before then."

"Here's the food," Hermione grumbled walking back into the living room.

I could smell the heavenly spices wafting from the bag already and my mouth began to salivate. This was a fairly new experience for me. In general food when space traveling doesn't have much flavor and needs to be rationed for weight control. On a planet however you can have as much food as you want with as many flavors that are available. But humans were unique in the fact that they'd try to eat anything at least once. Anything that was edible on their planet they consumed it.