Starfarers!

Chapter 5 - pt 2

Urshni watched as the sun began to sink behind a distant mountain that was dotted with gaping holes. In a few minutes, the sun would hit the tops of the tallest fungi in blotches, like light trying to shine down through a forest canopy—a real forest, filled with real trees, not the things that grew on Ifeen.

A slight breeze began to blow. It ruffled Urshni's cloak, pressing it against her slender body. She pulled her hood down so that she could feel the air right on her grey skin. Though she was a pureblooded Ojnian, she was often mistaken for a human by those that didn't know their aliens too well. The physical differences between Urshni and any female human were small enough to understand the misunderstanding. The biological reasons, however, between an Ojnian and any variety of alien, were quite different.

Whereas a human typically had a head of hair, Urshni had none. Instead, the back of her head had several short ridges that made a line right in the middle of her scalp. Her face was smooth and slender, mottled with bright green and copper flakes that framed her ordinarily curious expression. Wide pitch-black eyes, wet and glistening, even in the lowest of light, helped to maintain that harmless countenance, as did her small mouth and petite jawline. It was easy to suspect she was harmless, and that's honestly what Urshni loved.

She dug a hand down in her collar and pulled out a small hose. Sticking it between her lips, she pressed a button with her thumb, and took a deep breath in. Ifeen's air was perfect for some, impossible for a few, and minutely taxing on others. Urshni was among the latter. There was a small tank hanging from her shoulder, hidden under her cloak. It wasn't a necessity, she could get by without it, but it was nice to have anyway. Why breathe through cupped hands when a fresh breath was just a puff away? She let the hose hang free. She would want it again later.

"Teh cheh," said a heavy voice.

"Myan oup," answered another.

Urshni looked back at her ship, a short dirty-yellow cruiser made for long travels and heavy packing. Between its small set of landing gear, the ramp was down and the two Slals were playing their mind games again. It was a way to pass the time, and to anyone who wasn't a Slal, it was a rather confusing way to pass the time, made up of participants basically just bickering back and forth about hypothetical challenges in a tongue that no translator could decipher.

Whereas an Ojnian was the closest embodiment of a human—or perhaps humans were the closest embodiments of Ojnians—the Slals were about the most non-human humanoids in the galaxy. They just barely fit the bill of a humanoid, but only because of their general shape: two arms up top on a body where a head grew and two legs below to carry them upright. Some humanoids skewed those rules to include extra body parts, but never strayed far the basic layout. A Slal is born like this—in the shape of a human—and some may even die like this, but most will not stay like this. They slide their gooseflesh skin around and unhinge their joints so that they grow in newer places, seemingly just based on the fact that they simply can. This strange freedom means that nearly every Slal has a different shape than the next, made up of the same bits and pieces but placed in entirely different orders, all depending on that particular Slal's personal preferences.

The two Slals issued to stay with Urshni were as different as they could be, but they were undoubtedly still Slals. The one on the left stood upright with wide-set hips that gave both lean legs plenty of space in between. Its body was more than a little crooked, curving forward and back like a rigid "S," making its maned head and thin snout hang right above its jutting stomach. Its arms were lean, made of long muscles good for quick, repetitious work, and its hands were essentially normal: a grouping of fingers at the end of a forearm. The other Slal, the one standing on the right, was rotund, not just around the waist but in each of its limbs. Its toes were spread wide to give it the largest footprint possible; its legs were bowed; its wide head was sunken into its shoulders; and its fingers were disjointed and slid under its forearm—a preference of Slal bruisers that turned the knobby ends of their arms into clubs. Both Slals were black of body, and their manes were like furry gold, as were the tufts of hair that grew down their backs, around their privates, and along their ankles.