Seeing the Planet with the Monkey Cats

These transports are much slower than I expected. Apparently, the Xala don't really care to go any faster than is necessary, so their transports often float along slower than a Xala on the wing! My yela'kaja has assured me that we could go much faster in case of an emergency, but that otherwise we'll be keeping a very steady pace. Apparently Xala have infinite patience, and continually overestimate my own patience. He tells me, "We have chosen this route so that you and the other delegations can see some of the planet as you make your way to the next port."

We're certainly "seeing the planet". So far we've mostly been over forests. Though we have seen lots of housing units floating around. And we saw a crystal mine up in the hills here. It's a ground unit, massive chink of metal sitting over what the Xala call a "fountain", collecting raw crystals to be refined and processed. We're going to visit one later on -- one that's not actively working. Apparently it's too dangerous to take kaja down there while the crystals are being taken out. Something about radiation and that.

We take little swoops now and then to see interesting bits of wildlife, like a creature in the trees that looks like a giant flower. My yela'kaja tells me it's some sort of carnivorous plant that lures scavengers with the scent of carrion. This one apparently wasn't hungry that day, as it was laying out flat, with bright red petals. Not exactly the least conspicuous thing here.

Though the trees themselves are taking a reddish hue. The yela'kaja tells me that they go through a cycle every coaxrota where they get redder and redder until sunrise, and then go back to a sort of green-yellow after it sets. He says it protects them from the sudden increase in light.

Anyway, I've been hanging out with the Ŋãna most of the time. Really friendly people. I kinda enjoy being around them, even with the language barrier. Our yela'kajas take care of that. They work as a team, the one in human form translating Ŋãna to English and the one in Ŋãna form translating English to Ŋãna. I don't know how the other yela'kaja learned English so quick, though I suppose they have some special device for that. I won't ask for that thing; my brain might explode.

Ŋãna laugh a lot. They seem to enjoy the same kinds of jokes as humans. When they asked what my planet was called and I replied "Earth", there was a great hoopla. After a few moments confusion the human-form yela'kaja seemed to figure things out and tried to explain. "It seems that the name of your planet sounds similar to a Ŋãna word. I'm not sure how to translate it." Then he got into about a five minute discussion with the other yela'kaja in Xala, after which he must have been searching through the dictionary in his earpiece for the right word. "It is a reproductive process. I believe the word is . . . 'sex'?"

I laughed then, but not just at the Ŋãna. I fired right back at the yela'kaja. "Man, if I were to learn another language, that would be one of the first words I'd learn. How'd it take you so long to translate it?"

That, of course, was the wrong question to ask. It led to a thirty minute discussion about how Xala, most of them anyway, don't have sex, and don't reproduce naturally. They're all genetically-engineered clones, grown in special centers and all designed for their specific jobs; which explains why yela'kajas can just take some hair off your head and transform into your species. Then came an offer to detour the trip to one of the hatching centers. I didn't want to go, but Ŋãna are all for it, so we're taking a little detour.