The Eastern Seaboard Agricultural Expansion

[miokalia]

[[This is a thread about the new state which just ceded to Miokalia, called Kabutrhoh]]

Cheif Fon-Daesh returned to the village of Urto-Zani...
Well, it was a large settlement, but the residential section was very village-like. The pointed wooden houses that looked like up-sidedown rowboats all arranged in great concentric circles around a central village square.

His state had found a way into the Federation... Finally.

The Apolytam had migrated from Pargalo a hundred years ago. Having been pushed out by nearly everyone between Pargalo and the Eledorian sub-continent. Finally they settled in Kabutrhoh.
The Humans stayed away from them... but the dragons to the west tolerated them.

It was a complex deal, but Daesh knew that under the protection of the south... his species had a chance.
Sure, he knew that now the Public Works folks would show up.
They would bring their machines with them.
Despite his slight distrust of the mechanical dinosaurs which controlled the government down there.
He trusted them more than the humans and furs that pushed his unusual species down here to begin with.

With the Dincotians though, there was no history, there was no resentment. With them, it was a clean slate.
They were firm though.

Andertol watched every single one of Daesh's 4 arms and 2 legs (and two more weird leg-like parts)
But the meeting went well, as president Phong seemed unaffected by the odd creatures.
Immediately after the cheif left the treaty signing... Andertol turned to Phong and said,
"I wonder what Tinis will say to this? These creatures after all... were the terror of Pargalo once... as I understand it."

"Yeah, but this is a different world now.", said Phong.

[The Union of Tinis]

Almost no one in modern Tinis nor Pargalo had ever met an Apolytam. The few exceptions being the few who belonged to species who counted their life span in centuries. But despite the Tinisian move from Pargalo, the oral history, the primary source of information retention between the old land and the new, had managed to retain a good number of stories about the terror the Apolytam brought to Pargalo. Pargalo on the other hand had suffered much under Wune and Jirie and only the elderly remembered much of anything about the 'creatures that stalked the unclaimed lands'.

The Apolytam had disapeared from Pargalo under the unusual circumstances early in the previous century. With the growing power of business interestes and at the time, bought parliment and bribed aristocracy, the old government of Pargalo had begun a series of sweeps to rid the mountainious and hilly areas of the Apolytam. This was primarily due to the fact that the powers that be saw these indigious people who had been cornered in the remote parts of Pargalo as threats to peace and security, and were thus unwilling to work or live in those areas. Areas where great natural wealth was waiting to be harvested.

The Apolytam in Pargalo had always had a reputation of being perfectly happy eating the other intelligent beings when hungry. The truth of the matter may very well be lost to the sands of history, but the stigma had remained, making the average Pargalonian afraid of these larger beings. Thus the sweeps began, and after the slaughter of many Apolytam, the Apolytam had fled Pargalo.

Modern Pargalo knew nothing of the Apolytam's continued existance during the annexation process, but Tinis did, though not in any common format. Academics had become aware of their current settlement a few dozen years ago and had long debated weather these were the Pargalonian Apolytam or not, and about their nature. But in the end, the academics were a bit unwilling to risk making the old stories come true and instead pursued much more immediate concerns to Tinis such as the anchient history of the land they now lived upon.

This changed slightly as the Furry Federation began to form. A few questions were floated in academic and diplomatic circles over the possible admission into the federation of the previously unaligned states of the western Eledorian sub-continent would bring an unwelcome tinge to the table when dealing with the federation. When the unaligned areas failed to seeked formal recognition and entrance into the federation, the debate was tabled.

But the recent expansion of Miokalia has brought it back forward. So far the diplomatic offices had shown no indication of caring, but that didn't stop the political scientists and sociologists to speculate about the goings on down south. Some suggested that perhaps this move had only come about because the old stories were wrong, others felt that perhaps the move was to be a snub against Pargalonians, giving recognition to vicious creatures whom had been the mortal enemies of Pargalonians for millenia before hand, and still others saw it as a convienent conincidence and a chance for them to finally have a good reason to study the old group of fellow ex-Pargalonians.

[miokalia]

Sociologists in Miokalia were already analysing the history of this matter. However, the difference was, the Miokalians were by default... observers in this matter, having no personal feelings about it.
As far as they were concerned, the Apolytam very well may be openly carnivorous towards other species (and their own)... but this was of no concern to them.
The Apolytam were no bigger than the taller of Carchodonts in their own species... and with hardly more potential for ferocity.

Perhaps this is why the dynamic was so different.
The stories of the 'terror' from Pargalo didn't add up with what they had seen/known of the Kabutrhi Apolytam.
This chimeric species seemed to be quite docile... if not, pacifist.
Although, perhaps it was the sobering effect that the only creatures that would tolerate them being nearby were species which were capable of causing comparable terror as they were... according to the tales of Pargalo.

There was a lubricating factor in negotiations though. Oddly enough, one of spiritual nature.
The Kabutrhi Apolytam were non-theist animists. As were, to their pleasent surprize, the Malych. And to a certain extent, the outwardly atheist Dincotians as well.
Ideological compatibility was the first thing to go right.
The next thing was that these Apolytam had lived next door to a small state of semi-morphic dragons for quite some time.
The dragons, not beleived to have come from Pargalo because of a some differences, such as larger, more angularly plated scales, and less anthropomorphic shape. The ice dragons of Eyla. They lived in the high mountain tops.
Below, closer to the NCR, but still in the area designated as Eyla, there were some dinosaurians, but unlike the Dincotians, these ones were native. Presumabley a hybrid species of Stegosaurs and Allosaurs. They were bipedal, omnivorous theropods, but had massive stegosaur-like plates along their backs. For a long time they considered joining the federation as an independent state, but decided that integration with Miokalia, and the rest of the similar species would be far more advantageous and simpler.

[The Union of Tinis]

To: Ablitz Mragtada <[e-mail]>
From: Ferdale Olmi <[e-mail]>
Subject: Opportunity

I suspect reaching Kabutrhoh may become easier in the coming months and with all the talk about the entrance of the Apolytam into Miokalia and its implications, it might be high time we sent someone down there. I'd love to volunteer for such an assignment if one came up (hint hint, I really want to go). And it might shut up Bilcon and his troop of paranoids if an honest report of real Apolytam were to reach their desks. We all know they wouldn't accept a foreign assesment easily so it would be stellar for one of us to go down. And if you're worried about me not being taken seriously, send down Neb as well. He likes to critize other peoples work, and if he and I can come to some common results then Bilcon's troop will have trouble doing the 'oh they didn't do good science stuff'.

------

To: Ferdale Olmi <[e-mail]>
From: Ablitz Mragtada <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Opportunity

You took the words out of my mouth. I was presenting just such a proposal to our council and they seemed to like the idea. Get packing, the tickets should be waiting for you at the airport. I'll have my secretary send you the flight times.

[miokalia]

To: Khith Lorinople <[e-mail]>
From: Dan Hannig <[e-mail]>
Subject: I know it's not my professional addy

Because my daughter accidentally fed it to an RCD, and I'm still waiting for Operations to give it back to me again.
So in the mean time I have to tell you that you're going to be picking up some Tinis-apo from Briggare Int'l Airport in Rohomeo and acompanying them to Eyla/Kahbutrho. Because you're second to the ethnic studies department head... and I'm too busy with... well, running the department.
Take some grad students with you. Be sure somebody speaks enough Tinis-han just in case.



To: <[e-mail]>
From: Khith Lorinople <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE:I know it's not my professi...

I speak the Tinis-apo
And that's fine.
I don't think many Tinisians come through Briggare.
They may be shocked to see so many humans in one place... in the federation.

[miokalia]

Briggare airport wasn't exactly new. It was once an airforce base for the Northern Kingdoms, which had been converted into a civilian commercial airport in the late 70's.
It looked like it too. All the buildings were either from the era when it was an airforce base (1920's through the 40's) or were added when the land acquired by City of Rohomeo in the 70's.
During Einterbaum's regime, the airport was basically the only operating commercial airport in the state. As Rohomeo was the only city which rejected the leadership and could get away with it.
Commercial interests had kept the town alive during that era.

The inside had high, dimly lit ceilings, brown and orange low-cut carpet and bricks and concrete everywhere. It was very much a product of the era.

Professor Lorinople was their with her interpreter, even though she knew some conversational Tinisian. Her interpreter was also her spouse, Professor of mathmatics at the same city university in Rohomeo, Professor R13M4NN-23T4.

Khith had a white card with the name 'mragtada' written out on it
and they waited for the plane to unload.

[The Union of Tinis]

"I suddenly feel very out of place. At least on the plane there were three other furs."

"Ya know, its feels like that trip to Europe I went on that one time," replies Neb. "Anyway, they were supposed to meet us here somewhere right?"

"I suspect Professor Lorinople would be by the baggage claim."

"Probably."

"So, which way is the baggage claim?" asked Ablitz.

"I thought you had the phrase book or what ever," replied Neb Ilkvig.

"Oh yeah... well I think that was with my luggage. I guess we should just follow all these people in that direction that they seem to be going."

"Sounds like a plan."

The two furs, Ablitz the fox and Neb the zebra, followed the flow of humans down the escalator and to the baggage claim. There waiting for them were their hosts.

"Neb, could you grab the bags, both of ours, while I speak with Lorinople?"

"Sure. What ever."

Ablitz came over and stood before Lorinople and R13M4NN-23T4 and said, "Hello there. I'm Mragtada. I hope one of you speaks Pargalonian or Tinisian."

"I do," replied the malych. "And welcome to Miokalia."

Ablitz smiled, "One thing, just a technical note, I do go with the New Tinisian pronunciation of my last name of Teneh. Not that I think we'll be using our last names much, unless that's proper here. Oh, and Neb, the zebra over there, is with me."

[miokalia]

They all piled (crammed) into a small three-wheeled car outside the airport. The traffic was unusual for the area, speed limits were much higher and unlike further south, where motorists simply move forward at a steady crawl of 10 Km/h when things got crowded, up here drivers would regularly intimidate eachother by speeding up rapidly and then slamming breaks.
R13M4NN-23TA preferred to go by just Reinan, because people tended to stumble over the letters and numbers unnecessarily since it was quite a mouthful. He drove, while Khith yelled out the window at other drivers who would speed by them and nearly hit them on a regular basis.
However, while many other drivers would pop their heads out their windows and yell some kind of almost intelligible obscenity, Professor Khith would instead produce the loudest, feral screech she could make.
It didn't help that the vehicle was being driven by Rienan. They were safe, but Malych often are not very aware of the discomfort of passengers who happen to be in the vehicles they drive.
The car was an old three-wheeled coupe. Probably about 40 years old.
The engine, a Radial Electronic Thermal motor would make a loud clackity noise everytime it accelerated.
A warning light for something would illuminate every time it idled.
Then it would flash, as if something were hideously wrong with it.
The gauges would then knock the needle against one or the other side and then Reinan would explain a bit more about how the engine is probably not going to explode.

It wasn't much comfort though. But the three-wheeled clunker did have incredibly tight turning. And Rienan was able to actually drive between stopped cars as if it were a motorcycle.

Khith then apologized as Reinan pulled the car into a service station,
"I'm sorry, You probably expected a bit better. Well, you see our university, which is hosting this, is still recovering from past deficiencies.
Rohomeo Metro University has only had substantial public funding since last year. I hope you don't mind my car. It's actually very dependable, it needs some work. It's a bit dirty.
I'm really very sorry we couldn't get anything better but the University wouldn't spring for the rental... and so I had to find something at the last minute."

Mragtada looked at her colleague for a moment in disbeleif that the raptor was speaking such clear Tinisian. But then Khith finished reading from the card she had prepared that morning:
"And I had Rienan translate this for me this morning, I don't actually speak your language this well at all."

Reinan got into an argument with a pushy service attendant, who tried to put what was according to him "some complete scam 'engine cleaning' product" into the car.
Rienan stood in front of the funky old latch which opened the hood while arguing with him.

The back seat, while small, was made less nauseating by the large windows on both sides... which actually traded nausea for alarm, since both could see more of what was happening when they were driving around before.
The floor of the car had a spread-out pile of take-out bags with some restaurant names they had never seen before. The smell revealed that the spent sauce packets all over the place were soysauce.

The windows didn't roll down, but rather flipped up.
Neb looked at Mragtada and said, humorously, "It's like the old French cars in Europe"
Mragtada said back, "Dino Deux Chevaux"

Reinan returned and explained to Khith that the service station was dumb, and they should never go to it again.
Khith laughed it off to diffuse the awkwardness.
Once they were closer to campus, it became evident that this was actually a very large city.

Reinan explained:
"Rohomeo is a city of 2 million. That's about 70% human, 20% fur and 10% scalie. This is the only major population center which remained outside of the control of Einterbaum after his coup in your year 1979.
Rohomeo is where all the good politicians and leader went when the Duke's thugs came in.
I didn't come here until last year, when stuff changed.
Khith and I moved up here because it's different."

[The Union of Tinis]

A still frazzled by the traffic Ablitz Mragtada nodded. "Seems a little convenient thought that he would leave such a hole in his territory like this. But it is mostly desert about here, so he resource limitations right?"

"Something like that."

After a nudge from Neb Ablitz said, "Oh, and of course thank you for picking us up. I'm quite certain we would of gotten lost between here and there, err, the airport and here or there. That's the campus right up there right?"

"Certainly is, I'm surprised you recognized a traditional campus," joked Reinan.

Neb laughed. "I know the Arx Academy is hardly standard, but neither of us actually work there. I'm from Fields University near Pargalo City. Ablitz is from North Arx College. We're all part of the same academic structure in a way as the vertical school, but our campuses are as sprawling as most."

"The inter school meetings though are held at the academy though," added Ablitz. "And it is an administration hub for our inter school department. I know its strange."

"Most certainly," added Neb. "So anyway, about these Apolytam. When do we get to meet one?"

[miokalia]

"We're going to stop at campus first, then hopefully get a better car for the road trip. It is about 720 miles to Urto-Zani from here, and we have to take a kind-of odd route, because the northeastern side of the beltway is shut-down. Apparently RH70 is closed staring at Dalsa to Daccus, and There is no point in going 250 miles out of our way to get around that 100 mile section of highway. It's a sandstorm. So they shut down the highway in both directions. We have to go around the other way to go north then east. Which means we have to take H23 south to RH43 through Acytylene Valley, then north and west through Gaton and then North through quite possibly the most polluted place on this world, then East along RH43 again until we get to H16 and go north for 30 miles, and then turn right onto H79 and that's how we end up leaving Rohomeo in the right direction without getting caught in a sandstorm."

"Acytylene Valley? Who comes up with these names?", asked Neb.

"The humans here have a very strange sense of humor.", said Rienan.



The older part of campus was actually kind-of desolate. Around the university there wasn't a whole lot of anything.
Across the highway, there were the newer buildings in central Rohomeo, but it was odd that such an older campus was this far outside of the older part of town.

The campus was a bit strange. The older buildings looked as though they had many layers of paint, and everything was rounded-off. This was as a result of the 100-something years it had basically been out in the middle of the desert. The wind had sand-blasted these buildings into rounded-down versions of what they once were.
Although now, the weathering had stopped, the build-up of the city nearby now blocked most of the erosion.

"You all get to see Apolytam soon. We just have to go where they are.", said Rienan

There were a great many humans on this campus as well. But also there were many of the rare Miokalian furs. They were quite similar to the others they had seen, except it seemed they kept their hair very short. Almost to the point where they looked less anthropomorphic. Many of these furs were actually Calie in origin, but were culturally removed. The dominant language on campus seemed to be Niyapo. Which Khith was able to speak flawlessly.

The grey fox in charge of the ethnic studies department saw Khith and threw some keys at her.
She caught them and looked them over and asked him something in Niyapo. Something about "Why such a large car?".
To which the fox replied, "Because not everyone can deal with tiny enclosed spaces for an 18 hour road trip. And we got a deal on the rental."

"So now they've got a rental... this is good, because there is now way our three-wheeler would make it across the desert. If not from being overcome by the elements... possibly from being a target for the gangs.", said Rienan.

Mragtada and Neb both looked at Rienan sharply and asked, "Gangs?"

Rienan then said flatly: "It is a vast, sparsely-populated desert... of course there is some lawlessness out here. This is why Einterbaum had trouble with Rohomeo: because it is a population centre... and sociologically incompatible with anarchy."

"Can't we... take a plane there?", asked Neb.

"It is extremely dangerous to fly over the mountains of Eyla. We have to drive through the passes.", said Rienan.

"Are we going to get robbed... or killed.", asked Mragtada.

"No. Because the good fox in charge of the department has apparently rented us a reliable car... and I am allowed to have weapons with me outside the city limits here.", said Rienan.

Khith then opened up a hard-side case that she had pulled out of one of the compartments on the old 60's car.
Inside was an 18" electronic rifle and a couple of cartridges.
She looked back and said in broken Tinisian, "We. Safe. Yes?"

Rienan chuckled a bit and said, "We still have a great deal of civilizing to do up here. It doesn't happen very often, but in case someone thinks that there are some foreigners down here, they might think it is an opportunity for a highway robbery, or perhaps kidnapping. Because there is a small possibility that this could happen, we are taking every precaution. This isn't like the south. Violent crime is rare here, but almost all of the little of it that does happen happens up here, in the desert outside of Rohomeo."

The grey fox then gave Khith a small card and pointed to a car in the lot.

It was a very pointy, angular, silver and red car. The chasis of it had been raised a bit to make it off-road capable. It was evident there was a lifting system in it to make it more efficient when on the road.

The inside was plenty large, and there was more than enough room for everyone's bags.

"Well if you need to go to the bathroom, do it now.", said Rienan after all the bags were packed.

They were on the road very shortly.


The rest of Rohomeo was nothing too outside of the ordinary. It was very much a city made of materials designed to resist erosion.
Acytelyne valley turned out to be the biggest bottle-neck in traffic.

It was 4:45 in the afternoon and traffic was backed up. Only this time, they couldn't weave between lanes and other cars with the old three-wheel. The Tesseract, was a full-size vehicle. Which was something Khith was slightly annoyed by.

Rienan expressed no apparent frustration at the traffic, neither did Khith. No one was yelling at them. Or if they were, no one was noticing.

This part of town was indeed a valley, and very distinctively human-populated.

Khith poked Rienan after about an hour and half-way through the town and said, "How about we stop and eat somewhere. I'm sure the others haven't eaten since on the plane. Plus then we can wait out the traffic."

Rienan didn't say anything but instead very quickly took the next exit, cutting off a line of about 5 other cars, which then began honking.

Rienan later revealed that he would rather have everyone eat here in Acetylene than in West Rohomeo since West Rohomeo was just not a very clean place.

The drive through West Rohomeo revealed that it was a stark, smelly industrial area covered by a haze. Far-off in the distance they would see a massive mound of garbage and some very large industrial plants.

Rienan explained how this area is no longer used by humans, because they practically ruined it. It was now Malych-operated, and they were currently in the process of cleaning it up... and had a long way to go.

"They used to make nuclear weapons over there. Now, they're reprocessing them. Specifically, we took over one of the processing plants they had up here and now we turn nuclear payloads into deochalchim light-fissionable fuel. Anyway, we won't be here long. In about 8 miles we turn east and then north.", said Rienan.

Khith had the vents in the car closed, but still the smell of heavy chemicals was there.

The radio stations were very odd. Mragtada fiddled with the radio, conveniently placed in front of her in the middle-seat.

Eventually they settled on a station which played pop in a language that everyone agreed they couldn't understand. Rienan counted himself out of it, although he did indicate that he could translate lyrics very quickly, so it was practically indecipherable to him.

"A lot of stuff north of here is going to be Niyapo-speaking. It's a language that most of our mammallian population up here speaks. Although we usually attribute it to being a feline language. We're not really sure where it started anymore though.", said Khith through Rienan.

"The Apolytam up in Kabutrhoh apparently speak a dialect of Pargalonian, so I assume you all will be able to converse with them a bit easier.", said Rienan.

In an hour, they were outside the city, going north on H16 toward Roma.
They passed a sign which said:

Dalrymple 14
Yorvuts Nst 56
Kadomp 108
Lake MacCulley 182
Roma 180
Dstrct Border 540


"I sure hope those are kilometers", said Neb.

"They are.", said Khith.

[miokalia]

Motels were fairly uncommon out in the desert.
The small towns they were passing looked a little bit like those old west American towns in movies. Drab stoefronts and a collection of a few territorial-style houses. The main difference being that each town had their own utility systems, and at least one large radio tower, loaded up with microwave drums and other telecom implements.
It was modern, yet still very remote.

They never really had to stop for gas since the vehicle used ammonium electrolytic fuel. Which meant that it would take about 3500 miles before all the ammonium in the cell would become water, and need to be changed.

When it got late enough to warrant sleep there came a bit of an issue.
It was no problem for Rienan to keep driving all night, but even inside this station-wagon-sized car, there was barely enough room for everyone to sleep. What was slightly more of an issue was that with the desert becoming cooler at night, Khith required the heat in the car to be on, since she is incapable of producing significant or adequate body-heat when asleep, and if cold enough, she may end up involuntarily sleeping for as much as 16-20 hours.

Foretunately, a motel finally did come along.
An old flourescent sign, with one side flickering, that featured a giant number 3. Beside it, a two-story building with rows of doors.

It was expensive, but at least, it was a normal place to sleep.

It was definately a human motel. The beds were arranged in a typical human way, with myriads of sheets layered atop eachother, all neatly folded under the mattress at the ends to form a nice little pocket where one could sleep inside.

There was one bed, and Khith and Rienan both offerred it to Neb and Mragtada. All they needed was a lot of blankets and pillows which they were able to order from the front desk.

Khith began forming a pile of the sheets and pillows in one corner of the room and then she and once the lights were out, she and Rienan both instinctively worked their way into the nest.

It became evident that this was something that Khith's species did indeed share in common with birds. A vestigial tendency which had probably been that way for a very long time, and simply didn't change even in modern times.

That morning, Rienan automatically started heating up, Once he got Khith up to temperature, she woke up as well.
It then became clear that there was a reason why all dinosaurian bedrooms and bedroom windows face east or diagonal to east. That morning temperature increase is critical to reptillian circadian cycles.
After about 10 minutes of weird conversation coming from within the nest, Neb was barely awake enough to observe Khith slide out of the 'nest' and then Rienan following her.

Khith pulled a couple of eggs from a refridgerator cooler out, then some packet of what appeared to be a soup mix. She also had a plastic countainer full of noodles. She combined these things into what smelled like a garlic egg-drop soup in a pot over the stove.
After adding half a package of tofu, she allowed the soup to simmer for a while.
She then said something to Rienan and then they left the room and went outside for a bit.

"That was very appropriate of you", mentioned Rienan as Khith opened the other refridgerator cooler in the car, "I don't think either of them would like to be reminded of the vast dietary differences between us."

Khith pulled out a slab of boiled whitefish and began tearing pieces off of it and in between said, "I'm sure they are plenty aware of the physiological reasons for this. Grains and starch have almost no nutritional value to us at all. We use them as culinary glue and filler."

"Well, I suppose the Apolytam will be less inconspicuous about it", said Rienan.

"That's something they are prepared for. The Apolytam have yet to pick up our subtlety", said Khith.

The group was now about 280 miles away from the city of Eyla, where Khith was hoping the Tinisians may get a chance to see at least some of the less isolationist of Apolytam, integrating with civilization outside their own state.

[The Union of Tinis]

A good portion of the drive Eyla was consumed, for those in the back seat, by an argument about the spread of the use of fortifications made from non-stone materials. The argument had begun when Mragtada asserted that some of the earliest literary works of Pargalo mentioned often city walls in passing, and that she believed such a thing was only a product of the times they lived in when the stories were written even when the stories claimed to be legends of ancient times. Neb countered that Pargalo most certainly had wooden and kelp based fortifications three thousand years ago and that he was planning an expedition for the summer to find evidence of such.

The exchange was not really productive in the end. But it did help cut the edge off the anticipation.

-------

"My word," was all Neb could say as they spotted the first Apolytam. The large being appeared to be returning from shopping and oblivious of the excited Tinisians in the car passing by.

"Don't gawk too much Neb, he might eat you," joked Mragtada. "And you see, their vestigial fourth pair of limps are not completely useless. Look at him carry those bags."

Rienan added, "You are correct about it being a him."

"Yeah, the horn count gives it away," replied Mragtada. "It does make one wonder if there's any relation to Pargalonian dragons but the other biological differences are just to great to have it make any sense."

"I recall Ivan Skoo claiming they had closer biological resemblance to cervines but I didn't believe him," said Neb. "Still don't."

Translating for Khith, Rienan says, "It would seem at the very least that one myth is untrue. That the Apolytam can be tame."

Neb laughed. "But I wonder if there's raw meat in those sacks."

"Most meat comes raw silly," replied Mragtada. "And next you'll imply the meat doesn't belong to a non-sentient species right?"

"I don't have to, the UN doesn't see us as intelligent so I don't have to qualify it."

The sarcasm of his voice easily made it over the language barrier and all were soon very amused.

"Now," said Rienan. "This is just the preview. The main show will be later. But perhaps when we stop for lunch you'll have a chance of a closer look."

"If I had known I was going to be interviewing people in restaurants I would of written a survey," joked Mragtada.

-----

Their wish was granted oddly enough. Not ten minutes after entering the diner at the edge of the city and ordering, two Apolytam came in and took seats, effectively filling the space around a decently sized table with their extended bodies. It was either that or block the path between tables.

Khith, Rienan, and Neb did their best to keep their cool, easier of course for the non Tinisian. Mragtada was almost goggily eyed over the patrons. She watched them order sandwiches and coffee and discuss something in a language she didn't understand. All the while writing furiously in her note book. Neb also had his out but was much less eager to write down every inane detail.

"Ablitz Teneh," said Rienan to her finally. "I think they are getting a little weirded out by you. I think you're missing your opportunity to talk to them by being strange."

"Oh," she said realizing that she probably looked a little nuts. "You're right. I should talk to them."

"Wait," said Neb. "You don't know how to talk to them. For all we know they don't know any Pargalonian."

"Drat, Rienan? A little help?"