Tika felt like her feet were going to fall off.

As she laid half-submerged in the bathtub, she gave her feet some massages. Walking around in high-heeled shoes for hours was pure torture! If only her uniform allowed her to wear loafers as an alternative, she would wear them in a heartbeat. Yes, even in the twenty-second century, women at work still needed to dress femininely with high-heeled shoes and makeup, even though it was time consuming and uncomfortable.

For more than ten minutes, Tika tried to relax even as she was still grumbling about the unfairness of it all. Eventually, her feet felt better, and she stepped out of the bathtub. She chose to wear a comfortable sport bra under a tank top, a pair of yoga pants, and a pair of flip-flops that she brought from Earth, before stepping out of her room.

There, she found Indah, in the middle of tearing apart the tablet they got from the Great Museum that day.

“Where are the others?” Tika asked.

“Mom n’ Dad are in their room. Bayu too, dunno what he’s doing”, Indah answered, half-distracted. “Commander Jonathan just left, has a meeting with Avamar he said.”

“Meeting with Avamar? Why?” Tika asked again.

Indah shrugged, answering, “Wanna know our plan for tomorrow, maybe? Papa said, tomorrow we are going to a lab or something — me, Bayu, and Dad, I mean. Dunno about Mom, the Commander, and you.”

“Oh”, Tika hummed, as she took a seat on the sofa across to Indah. “If it’s okay, I kind of wanna go to the museum again.”

“Still not done yet, huh?” Indah teased. Tika smirked at her.

Their chat was cut short when Varka walked in, carrying a trolley of food. They stopped in the middle of the room, before their gaze sweeping around as if searching for something.

“Where are the other members of the exchange committee?” they asked.

“Mom, Dad, and Bayu in their respective rooms, and Commander is meeting with Avamar”, Indah replied without even looking at Varka. She was too focused with the work at hand, it seemed.

Varka blinked slowly and tilted their head, before throwing a glance at Tika. Tika shrugged at them.

“Apologies, I’m just…” Varka sighed, before taking a seat on one of the sofas. “I’m not used with speaking in English, I suppose.”

“I think you’re rather fluent”, Tika tried to cheer them up. “It’s just, well… the language you use is kind of…”

“… messy?” Varka asked.

“Formal”, Tika corrected.

“Ah…” Varka hummed. “You are the esteemed guests of the Mothership. My father would becross if I don’t treat you respectfully.

“Wait— you’re speaking in English? Like, right now?” Indah asked, lifting her head from the torn-up tablet in front of her and finally looked at Varka in the face. Her face was filled with unabashed curiosity. “How about the others? Avamar and Emperor Velandar, for example?”

“They don’t really speak in English”, Varka answered. “They use universal translators. For me, they sound like they speak in Anur Arta.”

“How does it work?” Indah asked excitedly.

And a lecture about the universal translator was held. Tika kind of prided herself of being a tech-savvy, but the conversation between Indah and Varka made her head spin a little bit. In the end, she decided to just listen to their rambling.

Indah then tried to force Varka to show her their translator, but recoiled half in disgust when Varka told her that the translator had been implanted into their brain since she was little. Tika was not expecting this — Indah could be a little bit stubborn when it came to dissecting new technology.

“Even so, I don’t really rely on my translator”, Varka explained. “As a Velrakis-Aran and a first contact agent, I am required to speak in various languages. It is my duty to connect with unknown beings. Often we are required to translate languages we have never heard before.”

“Wow, that sounds amazing”, Tika praised, and her impression of Varka increased just like that.

“Thank you”, Varka visibly preened. “I’m lucky that I can speak both English and Indonesian. My mother said English is one of the universal languages on Earth, so she made me learn it in case we’re officially making first contact with the humanity.”

“I see…” Tika hummed.

That was when Professor Arga, Professor Ratri, and Bayu joined them. They still looked like they just woke up — Bayu, especially, had his hair stick up to every directions.

“How dare you guys talk about tech stuff without us”, Professor Arga said, miffed, before taking the seat next to Indah. Indah shouted in surprise and tried to salvage the parts of her tablet.

They continued the conversation as it shifted to technologies that citizens of Velrakis used daily. As it turned out, the replicator units in their room could also make food, drinks, stationery, and other stuff. The citizens of Velrakis relied heavily on their replicators.

“So your people don’t shop?” Professor Ratri asked.

“Not really”, Varka answered. “Everything the replicator made depends on the code you input into it. You need the code to make… for example, this drink”, Varka raised a glass filled with light blue liquid. “If you don’t know the code, well… you can’t make it.”

“So what’s being traded off is the code”, Professor Arga hummed. “Then what if everyone knows about the code you sell?”

“Codes are made daily, and not everyone sells the codes they create”, Varka answered. “Some refuse to share the codes so that they can sell their original products. Of course, similar codes can appear in the market, but as long as they don’t know the original code, nothing is exactly the same.”

“How about people who prefer to make things traditionally? Do they sell their products too?” Professor Ratri asked excitedly.

“Of course”, Varka replied. “Of course, nothing is made from complete scratch, but traditionally made products are exclusive items. Especially if they are handmade.”

“And because most citizens of Velrakis are endangered beings after losing their home-planet, their handcrafted products become priceless commodities, is that correct?” asked Professor Ratri again.

“That is correct. Our handcrafted products are well known across the galaxies”, Varka replied. “At least once a decade, we hold exhibitions off-world to sell them. They are very well-liked.”

How about the other tech stuff? Aside from the replicators, is there anything else that the citizens of Velrakis can’t live without?” Professor Arga asked.

“Hmm… I wonder what…” Varka hummed as they tapped their forefinger to their chin. “I have personal house computer, interstellar network, communication device, and hearing aid implant…”

“Wait, interstellar network? Like the internet?” Indah asked.

“What is the internet?” Varka asked, blinking in confusion.

Bayu and Indah clamored as they tried to explain about the internet to Varka, who looked absolutely befuddled by their explanation, especially after Indah introduced the concept of ‘meme’ to them.

“I think it’s the same with… the internet”, Varka said eventually. “Only the interstellar network is at a wider scale than the internet.”

“How does it work?” Professor Arga asked. “The universe is so big. How does the interstellar network connect everything?”

“Not everything, actually. We only can connect to places we have traveled to”, Varka said. “Transmitters are placed at every star system or every one hundred lightyear. They allow us to to communicate with planets we have visited.”

“That’s amazing”, Professor Arga hummed. “The signal you use must be faster than light.”

“You know a lot about this stuff”, Tika said, turning to Varka.

“Well… when I was little, I was kind of interested to be an inventor”, Varka answered with slight purplish blush on their face. “Avamar was right — if I did not join Velrakis-Aran, I would be accepted to the Velrakaris Science Academy.”

“What made you change your mind?” Tika asked. Varka blinked in surprise, and in that moment, Tika realized that her question was too personal. “Sorry, I’m just… curious, I suppose. Forget my question.”

“It’s alright”, Varka said. “I changed my mind when I was a teen. At the time, I thought there was no work more noble than dedicating my life to protect the Mothership and all of its citizens. After graduating from my school, I enlisted into Velrakis-Aran Military Academy. My father was so disappointed when I got accepted.”

“How so?” Tika asked again.

“Because Velrakis-Aran members are not allowed to participate in Var Javalan — the process to elect new Velrakis leader”, Varka answered. “He wanted me to take the crown, but I am not interested with that, I suppose.”

“Oh.” Tika could understand that. Her own dad wanted her to continue his coffee field business, but Tika had wanted nothing but to be an astronaut since she was little. Sometimes she was haunted that she’d disappointed her dad, even after she got a few medals from her service.

Their conversation continued late into the night. They took turns asking Varka about the life aboard the Mothership, and Varka answered everything patiently. Seeing them interacting made Tika think that Varka would be a great inventor, like Avamar said, and perhaps an even greater teacher.