Tika let Commander Jonathan do all the diplomatic talk with Avamar and the rest of the Anur Arta, while she examined her surroundings.

Avamar was an Anur Arta, like Varka. She was rather plump, with dark blue skin that reminded Tika of the deep ocean, and lighter spots on her cheeks and nose. Her dark hair was decorated with glimmering pearl-like stones, making it look like a starry night sky. She wore a long white dress, with purple gemstones decorating the collar.

Beside Tika, the twins Bayu and Indah stood. While Bayu looked absolutely bored with the chit-chat, Indah was staring at Avamar unabashedly. In the end, Bayu jabbed his sister’s side, and Indah bowed her head, embarrassed. Tika somehow managed not to giggle at their antics.

Varka stood on Tika’s other side, their posture straight. Tika tried really hard not to stare at their muscled arms, yet it seemed that they noticed her staring. They turned at her and gave her a small smile that made Tika’s face heat up like a bonfire, and her heart beat like a drum in her chest. She managed to return their smile, if a little bit awkwardly, before turning her attention back to Commander Jonathan and Professor Arga.

The chit-chat was over not long after. Avamar took them to a transportation station of some sort, where a sleek looking train car was already waiting for them. Tika and her colleagues entered the car, before Avamar, Varka, and the other Anur Arta joined them. After all of them were seated, the car began to move smoothly on its track.

That was when the car’s walls turned transparent, allowing them to enjoy the view outside. This time, Tika and her colleagues were no longer surprised. As the car sped out of a tunnel, a vast snowy field spread to their left, and a cliffside that towered to their right. The view was so incredible, it was hard to believe that all of this was inside a mothership.

“This is Tlaki’i Pata’li, a snow field that was specifically terraformed to match the biosphere of an icy planet. It means ‘The Great Tundra’, in Vasa Lora, the language of the Lorians. Here the Jotnars and the Lorians live”, Avamar explained. “To your left, you will see the city where the Lorians live. They lost their home-planet nine thousand years ago.”

The city where the Lorians lived was so beautiful, with towering spires jutting up as if they were carved from pure ice. Arching bridges connected the spires, and buildings like crystal clusters glimmered under the artificial sunlight surrounding the spires. Tiny ships flitted around like busy bees. On the streets, Tika could see the Lorians walk around.

The Lorians were cat-like humanoids with fur in varying shades of white, grey, and black. Some of them had red stripes that decorated their forehead, ears, or tails. They wore colorful capes, decorated with beads that formed beautiful geometrical patterns. Some of them, especially the children, turned to where the train car sped and waved their hands with bright smiles on their face.

It was hard to imagine that these people had lost their home-planet. It was even harder to imagine living in a mothership for generations. Earth was all humanity had — and yes, sure, they had colonies on the Moon and Mars, but it was just not the same as the big old Planet Earth. Tika most certainly did not want to imagine losing Earth in her near future.

The thought still clouded Tika’s mind when they left the city, and the car sped toward the mountain range where intricate looking houses seemed to be carved on its cliffs. Geometrical knots decorated the cliff surface, and bridges connected the houses. They seemed sturdy enough for the Jotnars to walk freely on them.

“The city of the Jotnars”, Avamar said. “They lost their planet one hundred years ago after a catastrophe that brought nuclear winter to their entire planet. It was really unfortunate that we could only rescue fifty of them”

The Jotnars were blue-skinned humanoids, just like the Anur Arta, but the two couldn’t be more different. Unlike the Anur Arta, the Jotnars were gigantic, around five meters in height, with red glowing eyes like lava. Their skin was marked with intricate geometrical ridges, and their head was decorated with spiraling horns like mountain goats. Some of them had horns so big, it looked like their head was three times larger than normal. They wore simple looking clothes made out of animal furs.

Like the Lorians, some of the Jotnars turned their attention to the speeding car and waved their hands. Their glowing red eyes made Tika feel slightly uneasy somewhat, but she quickly shook it away.

“Did all beings who live in Velrakis lose their home-planet?” Professor Ratri asked as the train car entered a tunnel.

“That’s usually the case, yes”, Avamar answered. “In the beginning, Mothership Velrakis was built as an evacuation ship for us, the Anur Arta, after our home-planet was destroyed by the Ursii ten thousand years ago.”

“The Anur Arta and the Ursii were at war?” Tika asked curiously. She remembered Rog, the Ursii who accompanied Varka for the first contact fourteen months ago, and wondered how their people get along.

“That is a tale old as time. Over eight thousand years ago, a foreign invader came and destroyed Planet Ursa-9J, the home-planet of the Ursii. The Ursii, desperate, asked for our help. We agreed to help them, on the condition that they had to live in peace with us”, Avamar explained. “That cycle always repeats itself every century, wars break and planets are destroyed. All we can do is help those who are in need of our assistance.”

“That’s so grim…” Bayu commented.

“It is”, Avamar said. “Even so, some of our own have risen from the tragedy and begun life outside Mothership Velrakis. Like the Ursii, for example. They’ve built several colonies out there. The Veloxians too, have a few motherships of their own which have traveled across the universe. Even so, a few of them still live in Mothership Velrakis for various reasons — mostly out of convenience, but there are other reasons too.”

“How many beings live in the Velrakis at the moment?” asked Professor Ratri.

“Fifty million citizens, from seven hundred species, more or less”, Avamar replied. “We have been having… a bit of a population boom, as of late. It’s not unexpected, with so many beings living and coexisting in the Mothership.”

“Is that why you guys are looking for a new planet to live on?” Tika asked.

“It is”, Avamar replied with an odd smile on her face.

Eventually, the train car came out of the tunnel, and Tika could only gape in amazement at the view.

A megapolitan city was built over towering structures, where all of the buildings were architecturally impossible. Oddly shaped skyscrapers loomed over their head, and bridges without any supporting structures connected each of them. Curved structures bearing colorful trees were artfully placed between the skyscrapers. Wherever Tika looked, everything looked like something straight out of a science fiction movie, and she kind of regretted not bringing a camera.

And the inhabitants… beings of all shapes, sizes, and colors walked around, all were busy with their own life. They had purple skin, green skin, red skin, even iridescent skin like tropical birds. Among them, Tika could see winged beings, four-armed beings, and hulking beings walking around. The clothes they wore too were so varied in models and colors.

“Welcome to Velrakaris, the biggest city inside Mothership Velrakis”, Avamar said, proudly.

The train car took them to the tallest tower, where a gigantic polyhedron floated above it like a tiny star. Its surface glimmered and sparkled under the artificial light that lit up Velrakaris like some kind of unnatural sunlight. It was as if the polyhedron was made from a single cut of a diamond. 

This had to be a building where Velrakis leaders lived, Tika noted. Because there was no other building looking as impressive as it was.

“Seventeenth stellation of icosahedron”, Indah whispered in amazement.

“What does that mean?” Tika asked in confusion.

“That means these people are nuts”, Bayu added. He sounded like he just saw God. “Earth architects and mathematicians on Earth are going to pee their pants when they see this building.”

“Aren’t you a mathematician too?” asked Tika.

“Exactly”, Bayu replied as a matter of factly. Nerds, Tika thought, rolling her eyes.

Eventually, the train car came to a stop in a station inside the icosahedron. Tika and her colleagues climbed out of the car one by one, followed by the Anur Arta and Varka. Avamar walked on the front, guiding their group through an ostentatious hallway.

“The Royal Palace is not only the place where His Most Imperial Majesty and his family live, but also a place where diplomatic and administrative businesses are conducted”, Avamar explained. “Every facet serves their own functions. This one is specifically built to accommodate diplomatic envoys from outside the Mothership.”

They walked out of the hallway and into a large room. Crystalline chandeliers hung on the ceiling, and the walls were decorated with moving paintings, like animated projection. One of the paintings depicted an Anur Arta in royal outfit, with blue skin and white freckles. Their white flowing hair was decorated with black stones. On their forehead was a delicate silver crown with blue opal-like stone set to its center.

“Her Most Imperial Majesty, Empress Valaris”, Avamar said, waving her hand to the exact painting Tika was staring at. “The forty-fifth leader of the Anur Arta and the first Grand Admiral of Mothership Velrakis. She led the exodus of the Anur Arta after the destruction of our planet, ten thousand years ago.”

The next painting depicted Empress Valaris too. She stood on the top of a podium, with Mothership Velrakis flying over her head and a shattered blue planet under her feet. She wore a cloak that looked like a swirling multicolored nebula.

Tika was too awed by the moving paintings, that she failed to notice that her colleagues had stopped walking. She came into a halt after bumping into Professor Ratri’s back.

“Sorry”, Tika muttered, before she saw Commander Jonathan and Avamar staring down at each other. “What’s the matter? What’s wrong?”

“Avamar wants to give us a thorough check-up and decontamination process. Standard procedure, she said. The Commander disagrees, says he won’t allow her probing us so early into the exchange program”, Professor Ratri answered.

“If it’s really their protocol, as their guests, we should follow it”, Tika returned. “We could be carrying dangerous and foreign contaminants for them. Not to mention diseases unknown to them. In the worst case scenario, we could be causing an entire epidemic.”

“Thank you for your unwanted input, Lieutenant Kartika”, Commander Jonathan growled, but even Tika could see the way his shoulders slump as if defeated. “Fine, we’ll do the check-up and the decontamination process.”

“Very well, then. Please follow me”, Avamar said, and she showed the group to a brightly lit sickbay, where the six of them were shown to the decontamination chambers. Avamar and the other Anur Arta then left, leaving them with only Varka to guide them.

A member of Velrakis-Aran, named Laivani, greeted them and explained about the check-up and the decontamination process. He guided them through the whole process, and answered whatever questions they had — and Bayu had a lot of questions. As they stayed in the decontamination chambers, Tika somewhat grew a newfound respect for Laivani, who answered Bayu’s questions through the threshold with the patience of a saint.

Overall, they had to sit for roughly an Earth hour, and the whole thing was over before they knew it. They walked out of the decontamination chambers, and as Varka corralled them out of the sickbay, somehow Bayu still managed to ask one last question to Laivani.

“I still have a lot of questions”, Bayu said to no one, still pouting.

Not for long, though, as Varka then showed them all the living units where they would be staying on the Mothership.