They were sailing gently over a sea of flowers.

Aleph honestly could not get enough of it.

Well they were black petaled ‘collectors’ meant to capture ‘starship exhaust’ and tended by things that looked suspiciously like human sized bugs and big fleshy orbs with incredibly deep eyes.

But it was still picturesque.

“So um... Guide... Uh actually what is your name?”

The fleshy orb that had been coasting along with them reached out to gently arrest their momentum. Aleph nudged a control stick and by whatever magic operated on the robotic legs the bubble rig did the same.

“I have a common but not too common name, but it does not map to your language or phonetics as anything sensible... How about we use a name of equivalent commonality? Does sixdottir work for you?”

Aleph blinked, that was a bit perplexing. She knew a few people in her village named that but then again their ‘guide’ did say it was a reasonable but not too ubiquitously common name.

“Uh sure... that works... So Sixdottir... just where or what exactly is Redweed... We didn't get any looks at you on our approach... Pylo and the ship were trying to get something arranged but having difficulty finding a suitable display”

Their guide, tumbled over herself to the left and right, the arm staying stationary as if whatever joint was rooted inside was some kind of ball socket joint. Aleph really was kinda curious how those limbs worked... Were they tools? Or actual pieces of organic anatomy?

Maybe there was not a distinction?

Finally the speaker piped up.

“Are you certain you don’t want amnesty? This sounds a lot like neglect...”

She huffed heavily. It was nice really to see they seemed so concerned but really it was a massive overreaction far as Aleph was concerned.

“Yes we are sure we don’t want amnesty. We are quite happy with our travel arrangements, she’s done a lot to give us the environment and conditions we need. She also arranged you to be our guide here. So it’s hardly neglect, we just have a few cultural rough spots we have to work on but we will have plenty of time for that”

Sixdottir tumbled in the manner that Aleph was starting to pick up was a kind of exasperated acceptance of their dismissal.

“Alright... To answer your question, Redweed is is a polis, anchored to the upwelling structure of the reef in this region, where the solar occlusion envelopes of your home polis’ host star and Crimson’s Glory the next closest-”

The look on Aleph and Omega’s faces seemed to catch Sixdottir’s attention.

“You are aware of the basic structure of the Reef right? The occlusion envelopes? No? Nothing ... HOW do you not know that?! Wait let me check my notes-”

There was a slight tilting of the figure up and away from them as if it was looking above them..

A few of the strange bugs were meandering up to peer at them from between the petals of the pitch black flowers.

Aleph turned to Omega.

“Have you got any ideas what precisely this is about? Because I’m not really catching it... And I’m getting a little annoyed with being treated like an infant”

Omega tilted her head and rubbed at her chin.

“I think maybe it’s to do with the shroud shell? I kinda recall it’s supposed to be solid material at the outer edges? but none of our telescopes can really resolve much of the details about it... I kind of was not expecting to need to load that one up till we arrived at the colony.”

Aleph frowned a moment before nodding.

“Right... Excuse me, we are aware of that but it’s not something that we have a lot of solid words for outside of specialists and the jargon probably is not in whatever digest you are using.”

Sixdottir rolled back around to look at them her tone kind of flustered.

“You don’t have common WORDS for it? Wait- You come from INSIDE the occlusion volume?! No wonder you don’t care about your caretaker’s utter negligence!”

Aleph recoiled a little at the tone.

“Eh? What do you mean? What’s where Terra is have to do with how well Pylo takes care of us?”

The guide rippled its skin in violent agitation before stilling and voice taking on a strained tone of calm.

“I apologize that is insensitive, It’s just no wonder that you feel so safe in such erratic conditions. Your home is literally in constant motion to avoid being shredded by stellar retribution! Of course you would find being ferried by the very worst excuse for a siren I’ve ever heard of who can’t even-”

Quarti shoved herself into the control stick of the bubble and sent them leaping toward their guide hard before arresting their development with a quick pull back.

It threw Aleph and Omega into the springy surface of the bubble, plastering them with cheeks flattened.

“Oiy Tha! No-speak the foulmatter after lovely hipsalovely queen thickahsome! Thighs fah days our laydah Pylaoo. Begonen with that if yahs want ta say it that way... Seht uhs loose wise prots speech if yah defame our lovelies! We no wont tah be with ye company or trade if yah insistehn soh!”

Sixdottir had recoiled quickly legs slipping free of its body in quick jerky snaps to grab holds and pull her along to avoid impact.

“EXCUSE ME! I am trying to inform and warn you that your precious ship host is a wastrel and an idiot! I know Sirens! And I can tell you that there are swapper hoarders with more integrity and grasp of proper linguistics then your precious pylo! It’s Literally the very thing her species is known for! More then Three Fifths of their entire mass is dedicated to linguistic and communication processing and she apparently could not even be BOTHERED to learn to speak coherently to you over the course of your entire trip here?!”

The fact the eyes did not widen or change at all, just the motion of the sphere bobbled and swayed back and forth as if being tossed by violent currents was the only indication of the agitation visually while the voice was a combination of incensed and hurt.

Aleph raised her hands to try and catch attention, her voice attempting to bring calm.

“Um I’m not sure what Quarti said there, but maybe we should all calm down a bit? I’m pretty sure we can work this all out... Uh look Pylo has been very nice to us despite her difficulties with communication, and it’s not really fair to compare just her to like an entire country worth of specialists crunching who knows how much data to do translation like you did-”

“NOT FAIR?! Oh you are certainly right it’s not fair! The facilities we have here and the methods we use is something your ‘friend’ pylo should have managed in seconds! She should have been able to determine how to communicate more perfectly then you and I are right now within - Within... Curse your stupid confounded time sliced absurdities! If she had never even met your species before with no prompting! She should have been able to surpass the best of Redweed’s facilities combined in a race to completely coherent translation!”

Aleph blinked.

“Wait what? How can just Pylo be better than hundreds of thousands of experts working together?”

Sixdottir huffed heavily, voice taking on a deeply sarcastic version of her previous bright and cheerful tone.

“Since you appear to be ignorant of just about everything and suicidal riskaphiliacs I don’t see why I should deprive you of the surprise? No that would be grossly negligent to a criminal degree on my part. So I will inform you, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT SIRENS DO”

Omega tried to speak but their guide barreled over her.

“They translate and bridge disparate languages! They can read and recombine genomics across systems without a single chemical basis for shared lineage! Without even shared abstract inheritance! I’ve seen two Siren borne that share a parent but one was beget with a market analysis algorithm and the other was sired by a dragoon!”

Quarti snickered and waggled a brow at Aleph but she was still trying to to catch up on what was being said.

“Wait wha-”

“And the resulting offspring still can breed true and yet carry on Siren lineages as well! This is orders of magnitude harder then simply parsing a linguistic root and even our local clans of Siren can process language as a game for their children. And I will always speak up for Redweed but I am also part of the ministry of External affairs!”

Omega tried to get a word in edgewise.

“Please I’m really sorr-”

“But our esteemed local sirens? They are considered ‘orphans’ by comparison to the ‘real’ families like your oh so high and mighty owns a hundred districts worth of firepower starship friend ‘pylo’! So excuse me if I find that one of the esteemed families such as courtesan should be held to an even higher level of ability!”

They all stared at the guide who was roiling and wobbling all over like something was thrashing under the surface of its skin before it finally settled to calm. Voice tight and cold.

“So yes you are correct it is completely unfair to expect that some one who is a specialist translation and information processing clade that is also from a family that if our sources are right raised her from birth to be a diplomat and whose family name is so synonymous with politics and diplomacy the word for them is the root for our WORD for ‘cultured’ and ‘court’ should be able to have managed to talk to a pile of degenerative diseases like you who have a language so simple that we were able to scour the entirety of in a few of your so called ‘minutes’ !”

Quarti grinned at Sixdottir who apparently had finished fuming. The bubble seeming to feintly ring with the sudden silence.

“Feel bettahs nowslike?”

Aleph whirled on Quarti.

“Did you do THAT on purpose too?!”

Omega frowned.

“Quarti that was incredibly improper to do with someone trying to help-”

Quarti waved them both off and met one of Sixdottir’s big eyes.

“Ayes-not-like-wise when folk strum along falsely. Speak plain from the heart-lusts or git-on-out cheh? If she’not’gitout mightwise be decisive tah snap us up for-our-best-ness ya? None of that! We’ve gots bout our own manners with the hip-roya-lush of pylo dame! None more of this talk and defaming speech?”

Sixdottir’s tone was cold and flat.

“I do not believe I can in good conscience be responsible for the safety of such obstinate insanity. I’m sorry... I will take you to a reputable place to meet your Gastronomical Specialists and confer with paired Sensorium artists for your foodstuff... But after that I must wash my hands of you... Huh interesting expression.”

Omega blinked heavily.

“Wait you are going to leave us alone without any way to communicate?!”

The guide bobbed a little.

“Of course not, I’ll open up a proximal protocol for the standard lingua franca of Redweed to your speaker. I will also inform the local districts and the proper authorities above to your linguistic mapping template... But I cannot be held accountable for your safety. You are by any local standards insane”

There was no motion, but the sound from the speaker suddenly took on an entirely new quality, murmuring voices drifting from some distance filling the bubble before their guide rolled a nod at them.

“Now since we have established I want no part or liability with you awful people we are going to continue as swiftly as possible to your destination!”

And with that they were moving along, Quarti took the helm to guide the bubble bot.

Aleph tried speaking up.

“Uh, I get we kind of upset you... But you seem very nice, and I’m sorry about Quarti and all of that. Uh was everything you said about Sirens true? Like how does that even work?”

Sixdottir rolled around to stare at her as they drifted across the fields of black petaled flowers.

“Every word of it was true, and quite a lot more... But honestly, I don’t care if you believe me. Go ask your precious abusive little spoiled courier about it when you get back... Or don’t I’m done with you”

Aleph just stared as the black petaled flowers sailed by. It had started out seeming like this was going to be such a fun adventure...