Episode 1: Out of Water
“You there, kleek! Get me a list of the ten best restaurants in Malparadiso Station,” Passenger Lev25 demanded, his human face tilted so he could look down his nose at the flight attendant while remaining seated.
Yroi Ozazal raised her chin, lowering her dorsal lobe to her back, a sign of acquiescence and submission. She gritted her teeth as her digipods stroked the information into the printer. This human had been more trouble on this one shuttle run than everyone she’d served in a week. He’d wanted a pillow, and then he complained about the lighting, and wanted a complimentary globe of water—lots of attention but nothing he would have to pay for.
She brought him the list, cadged from memory—it wasn’t worth the time to pull something like that from the commlink.
“Sentient,” she said, lowering her lobe again. She added a bit of undulation to make her semi-transparent uniform flow across her banded skin. The human had been staring her all the way from Dome Seven, asking for some service or another every five minutes. It was enough to make her skin crack, and he was rude as well. Everyone knew that klekovans never complained, never stood up for themselves, and never talked back. He took advantage.
Yroi didn’t care about that—part of the job description. She wanted off-planet. One day she’d find the mark to take her. She was pretty sure this wasn’t the one, but she played her part anyway.
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