42: Screening

The landing party consisted of Wessona, Kavita, and Ol-Maran. They were gone for what felt like hours; as always, it was difficult to tell time on the ship. Kavita was the only one with a watch, and the clocks on the ship remained completely foreign to Richard.

Only Wessona and Kavita returned. They were both wearing simple paper masks. Kavita's looked familiar, a covering for her nose and mouth. Wessona's was of a different type, fitted around the base of her frill. It was the first time Richard paused to wonder where her nostrils were.

Wessona was carrying a couple of large paper envelopes. "We are welcomed," she said. "There will be a health screening for everyone on board and there is a mandatory five-day quarantine. We brought masks for the rest of the crew." She held the envelopes up.

"Quarantine?" Garth said. He looked excited and outraged in equal measure. "Do they think we have Earth cooties?"

"Don't be dramatic," said Kavita. "It's just like buying a new fish: you put him in his own little area before you introduce him to the rest. You don't know what bugs he'll have on him."

"But I feel fine!"

"And you might be fine, but there are aliens here who might not have immunity to things you're carrying." She turned to Richard. "Will there be a problem with the quarantine?"

"Not at all," said Richard. "I'm all for a quarantine, and so is Garth. If he moans any longer, they can just threaten him with stun guns."

Garth scowled. "To soon."

"C'mon, Garth. I thought you'd be kissing the ground after the longest road trip you've ever had."

He narrowed his eyes at Richard, considering this. Then he turned back to Kavita. "Fine. But I want my objection noted for the record."

"Noted and discarded," said Kavita. She turned to Wessona. "We'll let you three go first, if that's alright? I imagine you'll want to stick together. Let everybody know what they said: no one comes back to the ship until after quarantine, so we should all get our things from our quarters before we disembark."

"Right."

"We should go last," said Richard. "I need to make sure the ship has entered hibernation mode before we can leave." Ol-Maran had reviewed these protocols with Richard before they'd landed; it was straightforward, but would take a little time.

The Chorodonians gathered, donned their masks, and disembarked, Shashi all but vibrating with excitement to be off of the Beyma at last. While Richard monitored the ship's cool-down process, Nen-Alaya and Kavita sent the Karra down in groups of two and three. Meanwhile, everyone, including the humans, took brief trips to their quarters to gather their belongings.

When Richard and Garth returned to the bridge from their quick trip to pick up their toothbrushes and clothes, they found Kavita and Nen-Alaya alone on the bridge.

"And there they are. That's the last of us," said Kavita. She grinned at Nen-Alaya, raising a hand for a high five. The hand was met with a perplexed stare—Nen-Alaya had not taken the translator back, so there wasn't a good way to explain that particular human ritual. Lowering her hand, Kavita said, "Boys? Are you ready?"

Garth bounced on the balls of his feet. "I've been ready since the day I was born. I've been ready since I was conceived. I've been ready since—"

"And that's enough," said Richard. He accepted his mask from Kavita and slipped the loops over his ears as Garth did the same.

Kavita reached for their hands, twiddling her fingers. "C'mon. Let's go walk on a distant planet."

***

When they emerged onto Las-Kendarr, it seemed like late afternoon. There was no visible sun; rather, the distant sky was a pretty shade of mauve, which put Richard in mind of a sunset. It was humid and cool and, sure enough, the ground beneath their feet was indisputably pink.

"It looks like we're walking on my Great Aunt Mary's cheek," whispered Garth.

"Use a bit of makeup, did she?" asked Richard.

"She was basically the Maybelline section of the drugstore with legs." Garth looked around, his eyes perfectly round in his freckled face behind lenses that could, as always, have done with a good wiping. "Richard. Holy Pupperoni. This is awesome."

"Well, well, well."

The humans turned their heads to see somebody strolling toward them. It was a human in a gray jumpsuit with an embroidered name badge on the left breast: CMDR AMY BROWN, AIP (THEY/THEM). There was another row of text beneath it, presumably the same information in another language. They were Black, their skin very dark. Their hair was braided close to their head in several thick cornrows that fell to their shoulders.

"Commander Brown," said Kavita, "allow me to introduce you Richard Campbell and Garth Vanderlinden. They're the ones who made this possible."

"Don't let her be modest," said Richard. "Dr. Das made it possible. We just constructed the cells."

"And reengineered the ship's power supplies. And patched a massive hole in the hull." Kavita rolled her eyes and waved a hand. "No big deal."

"Well, you were—you were there for the hull thing," Richard stammered.

Commander Brown laughed. "Well, you are heroes, fellas. Welcome to Las-Kendarr. I'd shake your hands like we do back home, but protocols, you understand. You're near the city of Rukubak. It's as close to a capitol as we've got here."

Garth stared at Commander Brown's name badge for an extra beat. Then he looked at Richard, shaking his head. "Man, I've got some feedback for Earth. Pronouns on name badges!"

"Interestingly, English is one of the two main languages on Las-Kendarr due to the AIP's involvement," said Commander Brown. "There are several races that struggle with the very concept of gender, let alone when to use which pronouns. It makes things a lot easier for folks, both ways."

"And there's lots of they/thems," Garth said. He was cheerful, completely unabashed at the topic of conversation, which Richard felt was slightly personal.

"There are. Living here actually helped me realize I'm one of them," Commander Brown said. "We've got a lot to talk about, I'm sure, but you all must be exhausted. Before you can rest, I'm afraid the first order of business is screenings and showers."

"Showers?" Garth cried. "Me first!"

He broke off from the group, sprinting toward a low building that stood at a distance. It had a metal roof that gleamed faintly with the light from the sunless sky. Clouds of pinkish dust billowed in his wake.

Commander Brown peered after him, bemused, and then they shook their head and pointed in the other direction, where another low building stood. "As I was saying: screenings and showers. That's is our Entry Assessment Facility."

"Wait." Richard looked after Garth, who was just a speck in the distance by now. "Where's he going?"

"Right now, he's headed to the waste management facility," they said, grinning. "Don't worry, they'll get him straight. Follow me."

***

Later, Richard sat on a metal bench in a large room. He was very pink and very clean, his skin almost raw; he had just given himself the most thorough shower he'd ever had in his life, and it had been wonderful. Baths at the tiny sink in his room had been fine, but there was nothing like a hot shower with actual soap. His scalp was singing. He crinkled his toes in a pair of new socks and sighed with pleasure.

Kavita strolled toward him. The space where they were waiting was an enormous holding facility. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was, Commander Brown had said, simply a pass-through until they could be granted their quarantine dormitories. Around the room were cushionless benches where others from their party had clustered to wait. The windows were bare of curtains and the floor was covered in shiny, white tiles, so even the softest of the Karran voices echoed in the sterile, cavernous space.

Garth wasn't with Kavita. It had taken him a little while to catch up after his impulsive bid for first shower, so he was probably still undergoing the screening procedures.

"How do you feel?" asked Kavita, sitting down beside Richard.

"Like I've shed my skin completely," said Richard with a sigh of contentment. He looked at her, noting the rosy hue to her cheeks. She wore her hair loose and it fell down her back in thick, wet locks. He hadn't seen her yet with her hair down. "All I need now is a proper cup of tea and I might just be in Paradise. And you?"

"About the same." She leaned back onto the bench with a sigh, looking up at the distant white ceiling. "They could have done some color in here, don't you think? I'm about tired of all of the white after living on the Beyma for so long."

"Really? I liked it," said Richard. "Although I probably just enjoyed the extended palate cleanse. The house we were living in before all this started hasn't been updated since the '70s. There's still brown patterned tile in the kitchen, shag carpet on the stairs..."

"Oh, no."

"Don't worry, it's not all antique. In one of the bedrooms, somebody changed the window dressings. I suspect that happened in the '90s, judging by the color."

Kavita laughed. "Well, I understand it now. When all this is over, you can give the place a fresh coat of paint and lay down white tiled floors."

"Maybe I will," he joked. "I do like it. All the white. It's..." Richard narrowed his eyes, grasping for a word. "It's rather...uplifting, in a way. Don't you think? It's like you can sit quietly and just let your mind drift. Gaze off. Endless, clean whiteness. So much space to think."

Kavita raised her eyebrows at him, looking doubtful. "Maybe. A throw pillow wouldn't kill anybody."

Richard chuckled.

"Anyway, I came to get you because they're about to serve dinner," she said. "Are you hungry?"

"I very much am." He got up, The tiles were cold beneath his stockinged feet, and the sweatpants and sweatshirt he was wearing were so soft and so warm that his skin prickled with pleasure.

He offered an arm playfully, and Kavita rose and took it. "Let's round up the others." 

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