Galactic High

“Alright, so something I don’t get…” Jack began, whispering to Kritch who was near him. “Why the hell do you seem to prefer Zayle over Rayle?”

“Huh?” The Lizta whispered back. “I don’t prefer one over the other, both of them seem nice. I guess I see Zayle as more compatible.”

“What?” Jack snorted. “How did you figure that?”

The vast majority of the students in the Aquaplex were still chilling in the wave pool, seemingly content to relax and talk to each other, though many of them would soon be leaving for the night. Jack and the others of course would be staying for a full day/night cycle, however he couldn’t figure out for the life of him where or how he was expected to sleep.

Maybe he wouldn’t. Goodness knows sleep had been a rare luxury these past two weeks of seemingly endless school.

“Cuz I can’t stand being without my commlink for any length of time while Druids are usually famous for chilling out in the woods being one with nature?” Kritch retorted, sounding a little unsure of himself. “I dunno really, Rayle’s cool and all that but I guess I just see us as too different from one another for anything to work. Like, what if things end up being worse than they were before y’know? I don’t want to do that to them!”

“Have you spoken to Rayle about it?” Jack asked, with raised eyebrows. “That’s a bit of a petty reason to hold back, especially if it’s a hypothetical you don’t actually know is a valid issue for you two or not. I mean, they attend the school surrounded by tech, and Rayle doesn’t seem to be all too bothered by technology from what I’ve personally seen. Maybe you’re just overthinking it?”

“Yeah I guess…” Kritch conceded with a sigh, before taking a quick nibble of his burger. “But I don’t know, there’s a lot of unknowns and I have no idea what my grandfather’s plans are for me.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked.

“Well, there are a few other Lizta clans I’m pretty sure he’s in contact with, but they don’t talk that often. Also there’s other Lizta in the city, but they’re mostly individual Clanless or small families. He’s hinted that when I come of age or leave school there’s the possibility of finding a suitable Lizta mate my age for the purposes of procreation if I was game for it.”

“So like an arranged marriage?” Jack asked, curiously.

“Marriage, no.” Kritch embarrassedly laughed, waving his hand as if to dismiss the idea completely. “Nothing so permanent and binding at all, though marriages and family units have often been forged from these kinds of arrangements if both parties like each other enough and agree.”

“So this is just for having kids?” Jack asked tentatively, and the Lizta nodded.

“Yep! It’s basically a transactional thing where the Clans of both parties benefit, though there’s usually a fuckton of negotiation involved.”

“I can’t imagine what divorce must be like for you guys then,” Jack joked, though Kritch didn’t seem to fully understand his context as he chuckled softly.

“Probably not as bad as you think.” He grinned. “Once the cubs are born they’re usually amicably split up and raised separately within the Parent Clans. This is done by default as a 50-50 split of the resulting clutch but that usually changes based on whatever else is being bartered, like resources or treasures for example. There’s usually a short period afterwards to calculate the final trade if the percentages of cubs don’t line up but in places where the technology can tell how many cubs there are beforehand this doesn’t really become a problem for us. Only in the rarest of cases do things go to shit. Never happened with Clan Ashtail according to my Grandfather, though we’re not many generations old.”

”So there was a chance you could have been put with another clan had the coin flip been different?” Jack asked, only for Kritch to laugh and shake his head.

“Nah! My dad was Clanless and lived in the city before he married my mum and had me and my sisters, so I don’t really have any family in other clans.” Kritch shrugged. “Not that there are many other clans nearby we have ties with that I know of anyway. Clan Sparkpaw are relatively small and control a town a few hundred miles away, but have some good wizards, while Clan Thunderclaw are roaming hunters and herders out in the wilderness somewhere. Pretty sure my Grandfather and the rest of the Elders know of others close to us but those are the only two I’m aware of that we have any sort of ties with.” Kritch shrugged. “How does it work with you guys?”

“Well I guess we don’t really have Clans or Tribes any more, unless you go to some really remote places on Earth.” Jack grinned. “It was more common in our history, but in the vast majority of cases we just have families living within nation states, and what happens then depends on the culture. There are a few uncontacted tribes out there, though they’re very rare. Most are hidden deep within the Amazon rainforest but there is one on an island in the Indian Ocean that’s pretty wild!”

“Huh…” Kritch pondered, nibbling on his burger once again, by now thoroughly used to Jack talking about things from his homeworld with no context. “Why’s that?”

“So on Earth, there’s this place called North Sentinel Island where it’s illegal to go to, because it has a tribe living on it that just straight up attacks anything that comes nearby.” Jack grinned. “They’re primitive, and countries are just content to let them be, but that doesn’t stop the occasional idiot from going over there to fuck about and find out.”

“Damn!” Kritch exclaimed. “Though that sounds like the exception rather than the rule over there, it’s quite common over here, especially in the untamed wilderness. Hell, Corvin Enterprises even ran a TV show where they’d purposefully messed with one of them for entertainment.”

“Jesus…” Jack cursed. “That just sounds wrong, what happened?”

“They encouraged viewers to call in their ideas and vote for the best ones,” Kritch recalled. “The presenter ended up posing as a god that would reward members of the tribe that carried out their strange requests and it ended badly. The presenter took it overboard and tricked one of the more malleable tribesmen into killing people, eventually causing the rest of the tribe to tear each other apart over it.”

“Damn…” Jack gasped.

“Yeah, apparently about a third of the tribe escaped the resulting massacre and fled, though rumour has it the presenter in charge of that wanted to end it early and fled right along with them. Apparently the Church of Tyrus had found the location and sent a large taskforce to terminate all belligerents then resolve the situation, and even Corvin himself was said to be pissed off from how bad things have gotten.”

“Bloody hell…” Jack sighed, before remembering something. “We’ve gone off topic though. Trust me, you should give things with Rayle a chance!”

“Easy for you to say, haven’t you been dodging Vanya and Luviannestixxx for the past month or something?” Kritch grinned, causing a few other faces to turn in curious amusement.

“Oh yeah!” Zook called out from where the bat-like techie was lazily laid out on a raft spooning with Vaal. “Didn’t she tell us to keep tabs on you and report your location to her at all times?”

“Wait what!?” Jack exclaimed, jolting up in shock and scrambling in vain as he tilted backwards off the inflatable he was on, pitching into the water as the Red Legion Aspirants all burst out laughing.

“Noooo she didn’t!” Plooderoo chuckled from where he was treading water in between several floats. “Good one Zook!”

“Very funny…” Jack grunted as he hauled himself back up.

“I’m surprised Luvia didn’t join us here, though I imagine she may just be relaxing in the Megafauna pool where they have something similar going on.” Alora shrugged. “It’s not often she gets to polymorph outside of her Red Legion accommodations.”

“I’m not complaining.” Jack sighed. “She’s cool and all that but…too much sometimes.”

“You’re not wrong!” Alora giggled to herself. “Once she gets an idea in her mind she can be quite stubborn when it doesn’t quite go her way!”

“I noticed,” Jack retorted dryly. “Anyway, what are people gonna do now?”

I think most people will be departing soon, so they’ll be wanting their last rides on the slides and stuff. Chiyo shrugged. So perhaps we can all relax on the lazy river until they’re gone, then we pretty much have the place to ourselves.

“That sounds like a good idea!” Alora agreed as several other students around them began slowly making their own moves as the collective decision to move rippled through the crowd, feeling the pressures of their remaining time.

There’s no rush either, Chiyo reasoned as they walked up the now much-quieter beach, heading towards the glass wall of the dome where the river ran. I doubt there’ll be anyone wanting to use any inflatables at this time anyway.

As the lights on the top of the dome dimmed to allow movies to play, the cobblestones that made up the pathways began to glow gently, allowing swimmers to easily navigate their way around past several food stands that looked like they were ready to close up to the access point to the lazy river, which Jack had learned was a continuous loop around the dome, with a few added twists, turns and forks that changed things up with each circuit that one made, and a few pockets along the sides that connected to the floating bars that Alora had confirmed would still be open, manned by overnight staff droids.

“So you don’t actually need an inflatable, do you?” Jack asked as he saw Plooderoo casually shrug and lean back, allowing the gentle currents to carry him away, even as he spotted some unused inflatables floating past.

“Not really, a lot of people just like floating around, but if you wanna speed up and swim a circuit you can go without.” Sephy shrugged. “Hell that’s probably what I’ll end up doing, sitting still isn’t really my thing!”

We noticed, Chiyo deadpanned as she and Alora got on an inflatable together, with the Ilithii only being slightly perturbed about Dante joining both of them as they held their position along a still strait of water, waiting for their friends.

“Need a hand, Rayle?” Jack asked, noticing the short Squa’Kaar trying to climb onto their inflatable raft while Zayle held it.

“Yes please!” The druid nodded in thanks as Jack held on to the raft from the edge of the pool while Rayle scrambled up, and Zayle moved to go next. But just as they did, a mischievous thought occurred to Jack. Turning around he spotted his target chatting away to Sephy, and before anyone could react he quickly grabbed the completely unaware Kritch and chucked him onto the raft, then quickly kicked it away into one of the stronger currents before he or Rayle could work out what had just happened.

“What the hell?” Kritch asked as the raft quickly began drifting away.

“Sorry! My foot slipped!” Jack grinned as everyone around them turned to see what had happened before bursting out into laughter.

“Jack! That was so evil!” Alora covered her mouth even as Chiyo tried her best not to laugh.

“Here you go, Zayle,” Jack whispered to the Squa’Kaar, who was still looking at the confused Rayle and Kritch on the raft as it turned the corner and disappeared. He handed his inflatable ring over to them as they did so. “Sorry about that but I couldn’t resist!”

“That’s quite alright Jack!” Zayle chuckled, accepting the inflatable. “If it’s all the same with you I think I’ll hang back and see what happens.”

“I recommend we all do that!” Vaal grinned. “As hilarious as ‘Angry Kritch’ is, we should give them their privacy….we can make fun of him for it afterwards!”

“Sounds fair!” Nika grinned, dipping into the water and joining Sephy who had grabbed one of the discarded double-ring tubes and lept up to sit on it. “Jack, you coming?”

“Yep!” The human nodded, as they all finally calmed down from the excitement and allowed the lazy river to take them on its relaxing journey.

*****

“Damn I needed this…” Jack whispered to himself as he bobbed along on the rubber ring he’d acquired, drifting lazily along the Lazy River. The gentle current carried him slowly under the canopies of the palms, partially obscuring the mostly visual entertainment being displayed above them, which resembled some kind of silent physical comedy inspired by the likes of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, though Jack had not personally seen much of either outside of some brief research he once did for a school project.

He had clearly dozed off at some point, as he had lost track of the others, and felt that the atmosphere of the Aquaplex was much quieter than it was before as he opened his eyes, looking at the exotic alien flora lining along the edge, almost creating a dreamlike environment now that it was nighttime. Looking beneath him under the crystal-clear water, he was almost surprised to see several colourful fish dancing beneath the surface without a care.

Looking around he could still hear the faint laughter and chatter of other Aquaplex visitors as they queued up for their final goes on the slides, and Jack was happy to observe as he spotted them launching themselves off the large slides, marvelling at how high they launched and the splashes they caused before the river slowly took him away.

Suddenly, Jack jolted up in a panic and fell back as a furry hand gently touched him on the shoulder. Reflexively reaching for a gun that wasn’t there, it took Jack a moment to calm down as the figure swam beside him. He got up to his feet, walking along the bottom of the Lazy River with his chest above the water, now thoroughly awake.

“Hey Jack! Mind if I join you?” Vanya asked, her eyes gleaming with amusement. Before Jack could respond she quickly dived her head under the water and playfully surfaced right next to him, clinging onto his back as he kept walking. “I’m not going to let go now that I’ve got you, but if you carry me over to the next floating bar on the left just ahead I’ll buy you a drink!”

Caught off guard, Jack couldn’t help but chuckle at the amusing turn of events. Though he was prepared to shoot the Chuna down, he remembered how she had gone out of her way to help him, even buying him clothes without even asking him. Though much of that he knew stemmed from him saving her life, Jack found that he didn’t want to turn Vanya down. There had been some difficult moments, especially in the immediate aftermath of the Klown attack, but since streaming the podcast and interviewing him, it was like a fresh breath of life had taken ahold of her.

Besides, he thought it would be rather cruel to say no…

“You drive a hard bargain!” He joked, as Vanya mischievously wrapped her furry legs around his waist and got comfortable. “But alright…”

The bar Vanya had directed Jack to had a small entrance off to the side of the lazy river and was easily missable, having nobody else in attendance apart from a staff droid hovering around the floating platform that served as the bar, which resembled something of an aquatic oasis that drifted along the back wall of the sidepool.

“There’s a good spot!” The Chuna whispered in his ear as she pointed to a cosy corner of the pool, with underwater cushioned seating arranged around a small floating table that stayed above the level of the water, despite the slight rippling of the pool.

“Order please?” The staff droid asked, and Vanya wasted no time in ordering “Two Starcreams and an extra-large platter of Gel Delights!”

“Uh…thanks!” Jack added politely, though Vanya giggled.

“The Staff Droids aren’t sapient, thanking them is a bit redundant!” The Chuna told him in amusement.

“Hey, I’ve seen enough movies where the robots go bad, I’m not gonna give them any reason to here!” Jack retorted half-jokingly as he made his way over to the cushions, allowing Vanya to climb down as she grabbed him, guiding him to sit next to her.

“Vanya I…” Jack began, but stopped immediately as he turned around to properly look at her for the first time since getting here...

Staring at him with an unabashed seductive smile, Vanya had donned a very revealing white bikini that left very little to the imagination, and as Jack just stayed there having nothing to say, the Chuna leaned back against the corner wall and placed her brown furry legs over Jack’s lap.

“You were saying?” Vanya asked teasingly.

“I forgot what I was saying,” Jack admitted with a chuckle.

“You can try these drinks and tell me what you think!” Vanya grinned as the Staff Droid floated over and gently placed their order on the table.

The ‘Starcreams’ they had ordered arrived in tall frosted glasses and were adorned with slices of fresh fruit and swirls of purple syrup within a milky cream. As he drank, he was pleasantly surprised by the sweet taste that was just on the edge of being too much, but didn’t overwhelm him, and energised his body.

“Damn that’s good!” Jack grinned, having drunk half the glass in one go.

“I thought you might like it!” Vanya grinned, taking a smaller sip. “What do you think about the Gel Delights?”

Picking up one of the soft cubes, Jack quickly put it in his mouth and began chewing. It reminded him of a Turkish Delight, though again there was that signature sweetness that Vanya seemed partial to. “They’re good!” He grinned, quickly taking another. “Thanks Vanya!”

“Well Alora was constantly talking about giving you some good experiences!” Vanya grinned back, fluttering her eyes. “I figured food might be a good one to start with…”

“Um…well…wait…” Jack began as the Chuna gently moved closer as she sat on his lap, looking deep into his eyes.

“Relax…” She said soothingly, before kissing him on the cheek, and Jack felt the warm hairs softly caress him as she did. “Thank you, Jack. You’ve helped me get through these past weeks more than you know. I just hope I can help do the same for you.”

“Thanks Vanya…” Jack relaxed and calmed down, realising that Vanya wasn’t going to escalate despite the constant teasing. He realised that just like him she had some things she needed to resolve as well, and this may simply be a form of empowerment for her. “You…um…want to order another drink?”

“I think we’d better.” Vanya smiled as the two of them just sat there cuddling as the ambient sounds of the other swimmers in the Aquaplex simply began to fade away…

*****

Evening turned to night as the Aquaplex was all but deserted, with most of the visitors quickly making their way towards the exits the moment the evening bell chimed, with a few Security droids threatening to blast anyone that overstayed their welcome. If anyone else but their group of friends had ordered an overnight stay, they certainly didn’t make their presence known, and soon the park was all but silent, with only the low hums of machinery in the background, and the occasional noise of conversation, whoops or cheers of excitement interrupting the ambiance.

Now bathed in soft lights, the Aquaplex had transformed into an exclusive haven for the students, many of whom began making their way towards some hot springs that could just about accommodate them, with a helpful Staff Droid that kept the drinks coming.

“Honestly, the food here is just divine!” Luvia sighed dreamily, the dragon wearing a comfortable fitting pair of black lycra shorts and a matching tanktop, and naturally taking up as much space as she could from where she was sat on the warm stones. “And the heat caves are sooo comfortable! I must have been in them for hours! Quite the aphrodisiac I must say!”

“You should have joined us all in the cold pool.” Nika snorted in amusement.

“Oh hell no! Far too uncomfortable for me! I don’t want to get any frost on any of my sensitive parts, that can be painful for me…” The dragon sighed before playfully grinning and licking her lips. “Though I suppose that would depend on the kind of ‘Frost’ we’re talking about!”

Should we be worried? Chiyo asked, swaying side to side slightly from the several glasses of wine she had already had.

“No.” Luvia sighed. “While I know many of my kind like to forcefully take what they want, I would never do so myself…”

“I should damn well hope so!” Sephy snapped, ruder than intended as the dragon looked at her warily. “By the way, where is Jack now?”

“I spotted him with Vanya earlier,” Alora announced with a cheeky smile. “They seemed to be having a good time together!”

“WHAT!?” The girls all burst out, as the boys all laughed at their misfortune.

“Maybe he’s just wanting to stay away from Kritch for a while?” Vaal grinned. “Though I wouldn’t worry about that, I spotted him and Rayle together on one of the sunbeds.”

“Oh goood!” Plooderoo smiled, as he and Klikko had seemingly reconciled their previous grievances with one another for the moment, sitting near to one another again. “It’s about time!”

No, wind back for a moment, Chiyo huffed. Alora, are you sure? I would have detected them doing that kind of stuff!

“Way to not be creepy, Chiyo!” Nika grinned.

“I just saw them eating and drinking together, that’s all,” Alora clarified. “I think we’re all getting that tired to be honest, we should consider where we sleep.”

“Perhaps we should all move to the sunbeds by the wave pool?” Nika suggested, yawning as she shrugged her shoulders. “We can get our towels and sleep there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Alora agreed. “We can’t fight sleep forever, even though we’ve been doing well so far. Chiyo, would you mind letting everyone know?”

Sure. Chiyo nodded, as she lazily floated from side-to-side, sending a simple telepathic message to their friends in the area.

“Today was a good day,” Luvia declared as she relaxed deeper into the hot springs. “Thank you for your hospitality, Alora.”

“Agreed,” Vaal added from where he and the other guys were sitting. “I hope we can return the favour when we go to the Cathedral of Merriment. Arlox and Kizzarith are on the mend and should be able to make the journey at least, even if they can’t play Deathball right now.”

“We look forward to it,” Alora replied with a diplomatic smile. “Though it is a shame they couldn’t be here with us today.”

“They are resting,” Plooderoo confirmed. “Honestly that’s the best thing they could want right now, though at least Kizzarith has been in goooood spirits!

Well here’s to them! Chiyo raised her glass of wine in a toast, a motion that was mirrored by the others as they drank to that, before the Ilithii accidentally dropped her glass in the water.

“That’s definitely time for bed,” Alora noted to the rest of them. “At least the Staff Droids do a good job of cleaning that stuff up.”

“Very well.” Luvia sighed, getting up out of her seat. She had been hoping to see Jack again, and cursed her poor luck.

Still, there would be other opportunities…

*****

As the rays of light suddenly and without warning burst forth through the glass ceiling of the Aquaplex, Jack gradually became aware of a throbbing headache and the unmistakable sensation of sand beneath him. Blinking against the brightness, he tried to piece together what had happened the night before, just remembering his fellow students chilling on the sunbeds on the beach leading to the wave pool, or the beach itself.

Attempting to sit up, the boy rubbed his head from the dizziness, but was surprised by his inability to do so, as he felt a large, bulky form shift slightly from behind him, as a red, scaly arm that was wrapped around his stomach moved into view towards his chest and subconsciously pulled him in for a closer spoon, though the grip had little strength to it, and Jack easily shimmied away.

Turning around as carefully and gently as he could, he saw Luvia lying beside him sleeping peacefully, breathing heavily. Panicking slightly Jack quickly examined himself, sighing with relief when it looked like nothing had happened, a thought that was reinforced when he saw that Dante was chilling out on one of the sunbeds next to them, and briefly opened his eyes and smiled at seeing his master stir.

Getting up with a groan, Jack stretched and walked a few paces to the helpful Staff Droid that handed him a bottle of water, which he greedily guzzled down, though did his best to not wake up his friends.

Feeling content, Jack decided to lie back down, close his eyes, and go back to sleep, though keeping his distance from the still-sleeping dragon. There was no rush to do anything. He still had all weekend to enjoy after all.

It felt good.