Pa'an
Lonely Phase

Not all Pa’an were ready to Exit. In its quiet phase, Gara’un was a lovely planet. The diversity of life would be near peak just now, with tiny colorful fliers, bursts of fragrant floaters in the wind, soft carpets of light-eaters on the beaches, and the endless, rolling waves of the sea. But all that was distant from the Pa’A’Pavalan. Her cabin was functional and spare. On her infrequent off-shifts she had few entertainments. One of them that was quite in fashion was videos from the planet 20-odd light years distant where Zovoarcnor was stationed. It was several decades since the Pa’an detected the only compatible intelligent race. Those original signals had traveled 20 years to reach their specialized antennas. Now Zovoarcnor, one of many autonomous explorers sent to planets in promising life zones, transmitted the shows by tachyonic transfer fresh from the planet. The remaining Pa’an were in an ecstasy of delight over the discovery of humans. In fact, it was the main reason the remnant of Pa’an were staying behind.

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Virti, like many Pa’an, was learning English. She especially liked Star Trek, the Next Generation. It might have been created by ancient Pa’an before the last cataclysm, before they discovered the quantum p-web. Zovoarcnor, who had an overly serious goal matrix, always preceded and followed those transmissions by sociological analysis. She just skipped all that. Plasma pushing was technical enough, thank you.

After her shift, Virti extracted herself from her control pod and moved unsteadily down the ship’s long tube corridor. Two legged ambulation was tricky enough, but at ship’s gravity, far less than on Gara’un, and in the sloping tube corridor, striding was still a bit of a challenge for her. Fortunately, the tubeway was broad enough for several Pa’an. She saw a rello, a biped male she recognized as Taaran, with the rank of pan’vact. Having noticed each other, they moved directly toward each other on a polite collision course. Taaran regarded her and stretched his neck in friendly recognition. Virti looked him directly in the eyes, stretched her neck, and paused for him to go around her. He kept moving, but stepped to the side to go around her, as was his privilege as pan’vact.

Virti retreated to her tiny cabin for a well-deserved rest.

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