003

--The Enclave--

Yawning, Dassah gripped her usual monorail bar by the door. She looked up and down the car, trying to lie to herself about the fact she harbored some hope to see the purple and white garule. Her eyes lingered a little too long on a much smaller garule of similar colors who returned her gaze with curiosity before she turned away.

Yet another day in the world that was the Enclave. She rubbed her chest as she felt the weight of the flurry of what-ifs that started running through her head, as if her conscience were a non-stop train she was standing just a bit too close to as it passed. With a deep breath, she turned toward the center of the car, where a holoscreen was running the regular morning programs and connected her receiver to the monorail telecast with a tap on her smartwatch.

Pretending to watch the news, she glance around the car. The absence of the garule allowed her heart to settle a little down, if only because it allowed her to shoot down her hope with pessimism. There was still the usual large, drooling, jikak with twitchy ears and a handful of the other species that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Calm down, Das. Don’t be stupid. She let herself smile a bit, as she saw the familiar, gleeful face of the little garule girl strangling her chicken doll under the disapproving gaze of her mother.

Instincts aside, even Dassah had to admit the reality that she cared far more about them than they did about her.

As if on cue, a happy song came through the microspeaker implants in her ears, followed by a happy little cartoon on the holoscreen.

“Welcome to the Enclave!” An image of a valkyrian woman appeared, three blue mystriks shining brightly on her face. “The Enclave is a magical place, constructed to serve you: the scholars of the universe!” The woman was replaced with images of the hex grids that floated on the golden waters of the man-made ocean. It flipped to images of various university buildings, biodomes, and arenas that littered the geometrical landscape. “Boasting over 200 majors and countless professions, the Enclave is a place for people to make their wildest dreams come true, so that, as representatives of our respective peoples, we can share all our wisdom and knowledge throughout the galaxies, and collaborate on impossible projects! Work hard, scholars! Better our Universe!”

With that bit of moral-boosting propaganda completed, it flipped back to the news.

Dassah sighed. Wildest dreams, huh? More like wildest nightmares. She still had three classes to teach and three to sit through to get through the day—and none of those classes would likely give her a reprieve from her feeling like… prey. Dassah shivered.

All she wanted to do was crawl back into TheirWorld and stay there. Now that would be a dream come true.

The office was blessedly quiet when she got there. She quickly set herself up at her desk and got her things in order for the day before heading over to the small kitchen area and starting the coffee maker.

“Oh!” a peppy voice came as Dassah heard the door slam. “I smell coffee! Dassah, darling! Here already?” Stella called as she came around the bend. Dressed in a bright yellow dress under a light robin’s egg blue coat, she was a well put together as ever.

“Hey,” Dassah said, looking her over. “...Is your hair… Blue? Purple? Green?”

“Peacock, to be exact,” Stella said, patting her now curly, brightly colored hair over her shoulder and throwing her pastel pink purse over to her chair. “The blonde wasn’t doing anything for me. This color though— don’t you think it brings out the color of my eyes?”

Smirking, Dassah shrugged. “You are definitely colorful,” she told her co-worker, who pouted at her with perfect purple lips.

“You don’t like it, do you?”

“I like it just fine,” said Dassah. “Coffee?”

“Yes, please!”

“Black?”

“Like my soul!” Stella answered with a loving smile, flashing very white teeth that stood out against her dark skin. Dassah handed her her cup and started sipping on her own. She tried to head back to her desk, but Stella went, “Uh uh uh,” and grabbed her shoulder. “Let me look at you. You were early - and you still show up looking like you’ve been run through the ringer. What am I going to do with you?”

“Oh, leave it,” Dassah shrugged her hand off and went to her desk. “I’m fine.”

“You need to fall in love,” Stella told her as she followed. “Being in love is what makes a woman a woman!”

“This, coming from a girl who falls in and out a love at least three times a week,” Dassah grunted as she sat and turned her monitors on.

“Why do you think I am so beautiful?”

“I am just fine as I am. Why are you bringing this up again?”

Stella grinned mischievously. “Because!”

“I hate it when you do that,” Dassah told her. The young woman bit her lower lip, hiding a smile. She’s definitely up to something, Dassah growled internally, and changed the subject. “Still level fifteen in the game?”

“Ah!” the young woman snapped her fingers. “Sixteen, now,” she said. “How are you doing? Need help leveling? I don’t want to level too much until you and Hena catch up! Tell me, how has she already caught up to you when she’s only been playing a couple of days, and you’ve been playing for almost two weeks now?”

That’s right, Dassah twitched. Bahena has also started playing. “A-Ahh,” she went, trying— badly— to mask her unease at the prospect by hiding behind her mug. “It could have something to do with the fact that she’s a giant hulk of a dinosaur...”

Stella frowned. “I thought you were getting better with that? Weren’t you just patting yourself on the back for talking to that garule on the train? It’s just Bahena we are talking about - you know her; she wouldn’t do anything to hurt you!”

“I know…” Sighing, Dassah thought back to the conversation with the purple and white garule. That brief moment in which she managed to choke down her fears long enough to voluntarily talk to it was like a shining beacon of hope in an otherwise dismal landscape. “You know what? It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine,” Dassah said, resolutely. “I just started a martial arts class, too. I got this.”

“That’s the spirit! You can do it!” Stella cheered.

Dassah smiled, and sipped at her coffee. “...Why are you leering?” she asked her friend when she could no longer ignore her stare.

“I got you a present!” Stella told her.

With dread filling her head, Dassah went, “Oh?” and drank more coffee.

“Squeee!” she started dancing a little and then leaned forward and grabbed Dassah’s hand. “I got you a date!”

The coffee that was in Dassah’s mouth flew all over her desk— luckily missing anything of importance as she looked up at her friend. “You did what!”

“I did! And he’s super cute!” Stella told her excitedly. “Valkyrian. I don’t know what his mystriks he has yet, but— “

“Stop!” Dassah shouted and put her hand up. “I never asked you to do that!” Not that she should have surprised she did.

The sparkle in Stella’s eyes faded a little bit. “You’ll go, won’t you? It will be good for you! I really think—”

“Stella!” Dassah could hear how tense her voice was. She licked her lips and looked down at her keyboard. Taking a deep breath, she settled herself down. “He doesn’t have hair like you, does he?”

Squealing in her excitement, Stella exclaimed, “I knew you would come around! Listen, he’s the friend of one of my girlfriends, and he works at...” With her eyes turning bright and cheerful again, Stella launched into the life history of a stranger Dassah would now be forced to meet, lest her best friend be disappointed.