Chapter 16 #2
And even when she was able to lower her gaze, she was struck by the beauty of their nature.
A hover shuttle was there, a few other aliens already sitting inside.
All of them looked excited, exactly how Chee would expect tourists to appear.
The long hover had steps in the back and a long body for them to sit in, and was also completely topless, allowing its riders to really appreciate the tunnel of greenery – purple-ery?
– with white flowers that arched over the street.
The purple of the flora around her wasn’t a singular color. Almost every blade of grass, leaf, and bush was a gradient of light lavender to dark violet. And there was a riot of tropical flowers in white, yellow, orange, pink, and occasional splashes of red.
And it went deeper than just what she could see.
The scents were not what she expected. None of the florals or salt water that she would have imagined for a tropical style paradise.
It definitely smelled fresh, the air clean and crisp and calm, but the scent wasn’t of flowers.
She couldn’t describe it honestly. It was like those scent oils that were named after concepts like ‘tranquility’ or ‘joy’.
A combination of scents that she was sure someone more skilled than her could isolate and identify, but to Chee just smelled exactly like what it described without being anything her nose could actually name.
She was soaking it all in, amazed by the idyllic nature all around her, but she still couldn’t miss the moment Trove sat next to her on the shuttle.
She stiffened, now once again completely focused on him. But it wasn’t like she could ask him to sit elsewhere. The hover shuttle was full, and it wasn’t like he was inappropriately close. There was enough space between them that, if they were strangers, it would still be acceptable.
But she was just so aware of him.
His size. His warmth. The dark blue of his skin matching the casual clothes he was wearing. The scent of him, so harshly metallic and different from the fresh air of the planet. How was it more enticing than paradise?
It had to be a mate thing. A biological imperative she couldn’t ignore. It had to be. She couldn’t accept it if she really was that weak to him.
Despite her mind’s obsession, she kept herself outwardly calm and unaffected. Her hands were neatly folded in her lap, and she remained focused on taking in the scenery. Only the initial shock of it had been enough to completely derail her thoughts off Trove.
But there was still plenty to see and admire.
The space port was set just outside of a city.
The tower they landed in was one of five similar buildings, all of which fed back towards a single building that acted like an airport terminal.
People came in and out, either aiming for the private docking towers or booking with larger public shuttles that would take them to huge transport ships that couldn’t land planetside.
It was busy and wonderful. Like the clouds, the architecture broke up the color with bright, pale colors – mostly white but accented with light grays and beige.
Colors that, typically she couldn’t enjoy for how plain they appeared, but set amongst all the bright and vibrant nature around it, offered her eyes a welcome break that only served to enhance the beauty of everything else.
Since they already had everything set up, they were able to transfer from the hover shuttle to a rented hover that Grace had arranged beforehand. Chee found herself grateful for the other woman for taking on the burden of all this as it let her do nothing else but enjoy the trip.
She was just here for work. To see Hyde’s request through to completion. That was all.
But at least the view while doing that was nice.
The inn that Grace chose for them was not one of the big, expensive places, but it was still nice.
It was reasonably close to the spaceport, not really close to the water, but it was near the city center where there were lots of restaurants and shops and plenty of nightlife.
The city, like a rough quartz crystal set amongst the painted purple of the surrounding tropical trees, wasn’t very tall, but it was broad and filled with lights like it was Vegas, creating a hard contrast between the artificial and the natural that, somehow, still worked well together.
The streets weren’t paved but bricked. And the bricks were a pale, calm blue that wasn’t stained with oil or tire marks.
There were no gum or scuffs stained into the sidewalks.
There were bright ads, but there were even brighter people.
Lots of natives, of course, with their skin from pink to maroon to purple, and their bright, glowing hair membranes.
But there were also tons of aliens – furry and scaley, bright and dark, covering all the spectrums.
“Look there,” Trove said, pointing.
She followed his finger, turning to look at a tall, almost egg-shaped building.
The windows had a golden tint and were placed so they appeared to be spiraling up the side of the building.
The building was topped not with an antenna but instead with a large, golden statue of a nude, winged female, standing feet together, arms out, palms toward the sky.
Most impressively, however, was the long scarves of fabric depicted swirling around her, spreading out in the air in a way that seemed to defy gravity.
As their hover – piloted by Sway – drove down the street, the statue turned and shined in the light.
“That’s the headquarters for Vaulted Trade,” Trove told her. “Where the owner of Hyde’s cup lives and works.”
“Oh,” Chee breathed, looking the building over again.
“What do they do?” Garnet asked.
“It’s a trading company. They specialize in rare, exotic, and expensive items. The owner doesn’t just collect them.
It’s not really the kind of place you ‘shop’ at.
Their only clientele are going to be very wealthy and well connected.
That being said, if you are wealthy enough to be a customer of theirs, there’s nothing they can’t get you. ”
“Nothing?” Chee repeated.
Trove pursed his lips in a very stern, very fake expression. “Oh, only within the bounds of the law, of course.”
“Of course,” she nodded along, understanding completely.