Horizon Seeds (Complete)

Chapter Twenty One

Headline: BREAKING NEWS: CRIMINAL COMMUNITY ATTACKS OTHSHALI'I SHUTTLES
Headline: FORMER COMMUNITY RESIDENTS ESCAPED WITH NOTHING
Headline: IS KAUAERANGA VALLEY COMMUNITY A RELIGIOUS GROWERS CULT?
Headline: POLICE ON THE SCENE UNDER ATTACK
Headline: ARE THE OTHSHALI'I SAFE HERE ON EARTH?

All the fight had gone out of her, her knees buckled and she caught herself on the first empty seat on her way back into the main cabin of the shuttle. Tiny tremors shook her body but she didn't care. She had done enough, now it was time for someone else to do the rest and sleep took her. She awoke sometime later when her Swatch alerted her to an incoming call.

'Terrance, what the hell is going on?' It was her boss, her former boss she decided.

'Sir, I am currently resting in a shuttle seat, taking a nap. Its been a long night.'

'Why have you not been answering your calls and why are two of my best Bureau officers on an alien spaceship and not on the ground doing your bloody jobs. What is going on?'

So he'd heard what happened but obviously didn't get all the details. She sighed.

'Sir, I'm sorry, but I can't talk right now, I have an urgent meeting to attend so you will have to go through my secretary for an appointment.' He started yelling at her, blustering something about failing her duty when she cut him off and leaned her head back with a smile on her face. With her eyes closed, she could hear Five chuckling from the seat next to her. Another chime rang throughout the cabin and Chan answered the phone. His short answers gave little in way of information but he covered all the basics. When it became apparent that he was being bullied by the boss man, he too claimed to be in an important meeting and couldn't discuss the nature of it to anyone. She heard him respectfully hang up on his boss also.

'Are we there yet?' she asked as she wiped the fatigue off her face.

'We never left, Val. We are hovering at just over 3 thousand meters above the valley, but we will be landing soon.' She turned to Five with a deadpan look on her face. 'Ah, sarcasm.' They both chucked. 'How are you feeling?'

'I have a headache but I think I'll survive.'

'Can I have Mo give you medical assistance again?' She waved him off and closed her eyes but when it was clear he wanted to keep talking she gave him her full attention. He cleared his throat.

'I want to apologise to you, Valerie. I never meant to hurt you or to make you do something against your will. This is not our way, we do not allow our emotions to control our thought processes in the way you humans do. I am ashamed for the way I acted and I understand if you would like to work with someone else from here on out.'

Her mouth fell open and her brow wrinkled and she shook her head. Five didn't take that well and stood up and bowed quickly. 'I will have someone replace me as liaison as soon as is possible.' She quickly stood and stopped him from leaving the cabin. Others in the room were stirring awake so she kept her voice low.

'Five, I don't want to work with anyone else and you can't push our friendship aside so easily. You thinking with your emotions is a very human thing to do and that makes you the perfect emissary to work directly with our people. We are an emotional race, we love, we laugh, we cry and we get vengeful, boy, do we get vengeful.' She smiled at him. 'But we use our emotions to empathise with the hurt in others so we can understand and change their circumstances. We sympathise, so we can help those who are in pain. We get angry, so we can seek justice, and we get joyful, so we can celebrate shared victories. Without these emotions, Five, we wouldn't be human.'

'It is not how the Othshali'i behave, it is not how it is done.'

'Welcome to the human race, Five!' That was Carl, shouting from the back of the shuttle.