Cookies

Liza rubbed her hand over her recently shaved head, savoring the “ping,” the feeling of petting a tennis ball. She didn’t care if long hair was in; when summer hit, it was time to shave it all off. Ever since the arrival of the tarkins, Earth’s nearest neighbors in the galaxy, fashions morphed and changed faster than they ever had.

She wondered if it might, however, have been premature on her part. Waiting to board a tarkin ship bound to their world, she didn’t know what kind of climate — or season — to expect. Even in summer, though, the tarkins rarely raised the sail-like cooling fin that ran from the top of their head to the middle of their back so, she figured, it must be a hot world.

The British Columbia Interplanetary Spaceport was massive; carved out of the mountain, built, plumbed, wired, and connected to the highway and rail line in less than a week. Of course, the ships that landed and took off from BCIX were, like the port itself, all tarkin, but that didn’t stop cruise lines from finding a way to offer interplanetary cruises, like the one Liza had won from a trivia contest at work.

The tarkins hadn’t come as saviors or for technological uplift, though their technology healed an ailing world. Nor had they come as friends, though friendship was forged over the years. They came as irate neighbors, telling Earth, “Shut the hell up.”

Our broadcasts, calling out to the universe, “Hey, is anyone out there? Here we are,” riled our neighbors. They intercepted our probes, but worried that if we weren’t quiet, the Swarm would find us, and would happen upon them along the way.

Liza was determined that she would use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to find out as much about Greeth as she could. Swarm or no, they had the means to travel in silence, and when would she ever have another chance to travel to a different world?

“Boarding is now beginning for all Ultima Cruise Line passengers for the Greeth Explorer Cruise at gate seven.” The young man’s voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, cutting through the clamor of the terminal without being harsh or uncomfortably loud, as he spoke into the handheld radio. The cruise passengers’ suitcases already loaded, Liza moved to the queue pulling her carryon case. 

The queue for the cruise was all human, and the fall of chilled air washing down over them was a blessed relief from the sweltering summer outside and the higher temperature of most of the port. The tarkins had “healed” the Earth, but it would take at least a century before the temperatures would return to the pre-industrial levels.

A tarkin hemi-female, a head taller than Liza and dressed in a skirt-like wrap that passed beneath her stubby tail and nothing else, gathered Liza and a few other passengers. “My name is Lilget. If you follow me,” she said, “I’ll show you to your cabins.”

Liza heard muttering about the guide “walking around half naked,” and shot a nasty glare at the woman who uttered it. Once she was certain the woman was suitably cowed, she introduced herself to the guide.

“Hi, Lilget, Liza. Pleasure to meet you.” She put her hand out for a shake.

“My pleasure, Miss Liza.” She grasped Liza’s hand with her own blue-grey, six-fingered, webbed, and surprisingly warm hand. She had short, deep blue stripes, one on each side of her nasal slits, small, sparkling orange eyes, six pale blue nipples that reminded Liza of a cat or dog, and a cooling fin that faded from blue-grey at the base to a soft lavender at the tips.

After dropping the others off at their cabins, she led Liza to the end of the corridor, the last cabin. All the trappings of a cruise liner had been constructed in this section of the ship, including the freight elevator used by housekeeping that opened right next to her cabin.

“Should’ve guessed it would be the cheapest cabin available,” she said.

“Miss Liza, if I may?”

“Just Liza, Lilget.”

“Certainly, Liza. I would recommend that if you tire of the cruise facilities over the next two weeks, take the freight lift down to level four, then head straight across to the passenger lift, and go up to level twenty-two.”

“What’s there?”

“Similar to your cruise accommodations, there are restaurants, shops, and a recreation center. But they are tarkin, not human. But,” she leaned in to whisper, “you need to avoid the human cruise employees. They don’t like their guests leaving.”

“I’ll probably take you up on that.” She was about to turn away when she stopped. “By the way, how — uh — far is it that we’re going?”

“Greeth is just over 112 light years from Earth.”

“Wow. Two weeks. That’s mind-boggling.”

“Yes, it is slow on these mixed passenger and freight liners.”

Liza laughed. “You and I have different definitions of slow.”

###

It took all of two days for Liza to tire of the cruise’s included meals in the main dining, and the restaurants, spa, and theatre all required money of which she was short — having converted most of her account to Greeth money as recommended by the cruise line.

She followed Lilget’s instructions, ducking into the freight elevator when no other humans were looking. She travelled down to level four, where the doors opened to a deck that was busy and a balmy 28 degrees Celsius. She was surprised to see Lilget there chatting with other tarkins.

Based on the tail shapes, she was talking to another hemi-female, a female, and one that was either a youngish male or adult hemi-male. She didn’t want to interrupt, so she gave a small nod and continued toward the lift.

Lilget raised her cooling sail, waving it back and forth. “Liza! Come over and meet my siblings.”

Liza walked over. “Hi, Lilget. I didn’t want to interrupt, it looked like an important discussion.”

“Only the most important,” the hemi-male said, “what to have for our meal.”

She noticed that all four had similar deep blue stripes by their nasal slits, but Lilget was the only one whose fin paled to lavender, the others all fading to a dusty cyan. “I can see the resemblance,” Liza said.

Lilget went around the circle, introducing her the hemi-male, the hemi-female, and the female in turn. “This is Birget, Mizget, and Grigetta. Siblings, this is Liza.”

They all gave a short flap and wave of their cooling fins. Unable to reciprocate, Liza said, “Now I wish I’d gotten a mohawk instead of cutting it all off, then I could wave back.”

The arrival of the elevator saved her from the awkward silence as none of the tarkins understood what she was talking about. She piled on with, she guessed, around fifty tarkins, but they were the only group speaking English.

When the doors opened on level twenty-two, Liza was hit with an aroma that was at once mouth-watering and alien. As the siblings were still discussing what they would eat, Liza asked, “What is that? It smells delicious.”

Birget laughed. “That is the air purifiers. They put in the smell of smatta fruit, so you know it’s working.”

“A bit like using vanilla-scented candles, and you think you’re in for cookies, but you’re not.”

The siblings stopped, turned to face each other, and shouted out together, “Koukies!”

Liza found herself being led by the hand at breakneck speed for an eatery on the opposite side of the level. The siblings chattered at her, assuring her that it would be the culinary experience of her life.

In the whirlwind of ordering, getting two trays of food, and finding a table, she learned that she was about to taste tarkin comfort food. One of those things which are bad for you, but taste so good.

At the table, Lilget set a glass of water and a box full of green and yellow cubes in front of Liza. “Are you ready?”

Liza took a whiff of the processed food, and it set off the pleasure centers of her brain in the same way a burger and fries would. “I’ll try anything once,” she said, “twice if it doesn’t kill me.”

The green cubes had a flavor of savory spices and some unknown meat somewhere between pork and chicken. The yellow cubes tasted almost, but not quite, like sweet potato fries. Like the tarkins at the table, she made short work of her meal.

Grigetta pulled another box up from where she’d hidden it on the bench. “And a surprise for our new human friend,” she said.

The smell from the box was similar to that in the air purifier. All eyes were on Liza as Grigetta opened the box and showed the four rod-shaped snacks inside.

Lilget grabbed one and said, “Don’t bite it right away. Suck on it for a bit until it softens up.”

“Or dip it in your water,” Birget said, as he did just that. “Softens it up and makes the water sweet.”

Liza opted for sucking on it. The flavor at first was sweet, but flat. As it softened up, though, other flavors came through. It was as though someone had found a way to combine a churro with lemon, coffee, and some savory flavor she couldn’t identify.

It took a moment for her brain to catch on to the flavors, but once it did, her eyes rolled back in bliss. “This is heaven. What is it called?”

“Koukies,” Lilget answered, “I thought you knew this. They are flavored with smatta fruit; it’s not so good raw but makes the best sweets.”

“No, we have something called ‘cookies’ — sounds almost the same — but you’re going to have to try some now.” She leaned toward Lilget. “You work on the cruise, right?”

“I work on this ship. I’m one of the liaison officers for the human cruise line, when they’re using that cargo space. Usually, I’m just working in the cargo office with my siblings, though.”

“Does the cruise line let you get any of their food? I can suggest the few things that are worth it.”

“No, they don’t. The only reason I was there when you boarded was because one of the humans was sick, and they felt it was fine for a tarkin cargo handler to show the ‘cheapskates’ to their bunks.”

Liza frowned. “That won’t do. When we get back to Earth, can you take shore leave?”

“What’s that?”

“Where you leave the ship, for a few hours, or even days?”

“I think we can. We will have two Earth days to offload the cruise module, and then I need to be back for loading.”

The other siblings were looking at Liza with curious expressions. “Then plan on it. While we’re on the ship, I want to discover all your favorite foods, and you can tell me the best places to go while I’m on Greeth in….”

“Prikitalt is the name of the city where we land,” Lilget offered.

“Prikitalt; got it. In exchange, when we get back to Earth, I’m going to treat you all to human comfort food and cookies, and to whatever sights you want to see in Vancouver.”