The observatory tower had an unobstructed view of both the mountains and the sea. In darkness, Pearl could see light from the city rising up and dancing on the water’s surface. If she went down she’d be able to hear the muffled noise of people rushing about but the noise coming from below the tower was enough for the moment - a celebration, or so they said.

She didn’t turn when she heard the room’s hatch open. 

“Everyone’s looking for you,” Olaan said. “To lecture me or convince me to stay,” Pearl retorted softly.

“Of course.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Pearl asked, extending her hand.

Olaan took it briefly. “I know better.”

Pearl let her hand drop, looking out over the sea. It would be warm this time of year. She’d been too busy to swim. All her trips below had taken place in her aquatic travel unit since she’d begun devising a way to contact the outside world. 

It hadn’t been an easy task and she suspected it would have been an impossible one were she not Human. There had been a lot of meetings in which everything had had to go perfectly but in the end one fact remained true and at the forefront of everyone’s minds: Pearl did not belong on Opranov. This fact had another hidden beneath it, present but unsaid: Opranov did not want her.

“If you wish to return to the outside world then go.” 

That was all that’d been written in the final letter of her correspondence with the On High. After reading it, she’d wanted to say something back. Something about how frightened she was, a question about what exactly was meant by ‘return’. She’d been abandoned on Opranov and never once left it. She was not jumping into open arms, no matter what anyone thought. She was standing above the precipice of a dark, grand, cavern.

Instead, she’d pocketed the letter and gone up to her observatory tower, finally able to contact the U.U.C. She’d decided to plead into the cavern and hope an answer came echoing back.

After a few months, it had.

Behind her, Pearl heard the sound of the old projection system gearing up, then the voice of the man she’d been put into contact with - Ken Bridgers.

“The U.U.C is honored that Opranov has decided to reach out to us again and we’d be more than happy to take you along on our journey! My name is Captain Ken Bridgers and I assure you on behalf of every member of the committee that we will do our very best to make you feel warm and welcomed from the moment you come aboard our vessel…”

Olaan stood watching the projection, hands clasped behind ceir back.

The moonlight made ceir blue-gray skin look glossy. 

Pearl sidled up beside ceir, joining the viewing.

Before receiving the U.U.C’s video, she had never seen another Human except in the books Olaan would bring her, and all of those were mere illustrations. She was fascinated by the sight in front of her, real Human beings moving and talking and interacting with each other - smiling, just like in the books.

In the video, Ken Bridgers began introducing key members of his vessel, all of whom were smiling brightly. 

Pearl attempted to commit their names to memory though it was difficult to follow what was being communicated without the otlu. It appeared Humans did not utilize their body as much when speaking and the gestures they made had a certain frivolous quality to them which confused her mind, used to finding meaning in even the smallest of movements.

“None of them look like you,” Olaan remarked.

The simple observation seemed to tear apart whatever joy she’d found and though she’d thought the same thing upon first watching the video, Pearl fought vehemently against the notion now. They were Humans, of course they looked like her.

Pearl turned her head away and shook it.

Olaan surged ceir head forward. 

“There’s a resemblance but none look like you,” co insisted. 

Pearl stayed still, considering this. Again, her impulse was to disagree but the admittance of a resemblance was true, proving anything more than that would be time consuming, and she was tired. She didn’t want another argument.

Deciding not to take the disagreement further Pearl moved her head back and Olaan did the same, the two of them settling into silence as they watched the rest of the video.

“Opranov doesn’t want our ship anywhere near its orbit so we’ll be waiting for you at the nearest station on Tuesday. That’s Werlek 3 - it’s a bit backwater but we assure you you won’t come to harm as long as you keep your personal possessions on your person. I look forward to seeing you,” Bridger said, his smile widening even further. “We all do.”

The video went dead and the room darkened by increments as the projector wound down. Olaan made a disapproving noise as co held out ceir hand. Pearl touched it.

“What is Tuesday?”

“Tuesday is part of the wider calendar. On Earth it is…” she walked over to the wall which was covered in all manner of Human memorabilia including a recruitment poster for the Universal Unification Committee which she and Olaan had managed to collect through an exhaustive routine of semi-legal barter and trade. “Two days from now.”

Olaan hummed, moving closer. “The others will miss you and I am afraid. Humans are known to be violently consumptive. You are a very trusting individual - you don’t walk away when you’re disrespected.”

Pearl didn’t point out that she didn’t quite feel she had that luxury. “To seek out new experiences one must take on a certain degree of risk,” she said instead, reaching up and touching the U.U.C poster. One of the figures there almost looked like her - brown skin but the same flat hair that Bridgers and his companions sported. “That includes the risk of disrespect or rejection.”

“Could you handle that?” Olaan asked after Pearl accepted ceir hand. “Rejection?”

Pearl was quiet for a moment then she slapped ceir hand down. Olaan let it fall without struggle, turning away from her as she slowly sank to the ground. The non-answer to ceir question was accepted. 

Pearl breathed slowly, calming herself. It had taken a lot of energy to get this far. She’d had to jump through hoops and argue her case perfectly to the On High and learn the universal language just to be able to try to contact the U.U.C. To be rejected at this point would be…

Olaan began filling the silence. “I will follow you however far you wish to go, Pearl. No matter what happens, you will have a friend and ally in me.” As co continued to speak, ceir body stretched and lifted her to her feet once again. “Please do not turn your back on me, even if you grow weary of Opranov.”

Pearl looked into ceir eyes and didn’t move to stand on her own, entrusting Olaan with her weight. “How could I ‘grow weary’ of my home? That isn’t it, Olaan, it’s just…” She looked out at the ocean. “I feel…trapped. Not on Opranov exactly but in my life. It’s frightening to be so hopeless.” 

She grabbed the railing which encircled the inner window, gripping it tightly as Olaan set her down. Her weight was her own again. “I didn’t contact the U.U.C because I hate you or the others. I did it because I would die if something didn’t change and this is as good a change as any. I am Novian, I will always be Novian.”

She pressed her forehead against the glass. It was cold this high up and her body heat made the scenery fog. “But perhaps…I can also connect to this other part of myself. To the one who named me Pearl.”

“To the one who abandoned you on this planet.”

Pearl spun around and exclaimed angrily at Olaan who bowed ceir head immediately.

“I apologize,” co said.

After a moment Pearl stomped on the ground, releasing ceir.

“You wouldn’t understand,” she said, storming past her friend and opening the hatch. The sound of the party taking place below rose up to meet them, the warm light pushing its way into the room. “Everything here was made for you. You could never understand.”

Pearl paused, her breathing becoming heavy. Olaan waited for a moment to see if she would continue before stepping forward and crouching across from her. 

“I apologize,” co said again, softer. “I only want to protect you from hurt.”

Pearl sighed, leaning forward so their foreheads were pressed together. She opened her eyes, looking into Olaan’s: Large blue voids which allowed ceir to see perfectly underwater. Pearl on the other hand had to wear goggles to poorly mimic the same view. She had to carry an oxygen tank to move freely through the city and she’d had to build them both with her own two hands. 

What would a city built on land look like? What would it be like to be among people who had her body - who choked on water as she did no matter how much time she spent immersed in it? 

She wanted to find out. Even if it ended in rejection, she couldn’t bear to spend her days lying in bed anymore. She’d begun wishing she was dead, that it was all finally over - the misery that came with staying stagnant for so long.

No, Olaan could never understand. However, co had been her friend for as long as she could remember. Ceir had been the one to encourage her inventions, to fight against bullies, to bring her the first book from the outside world about Humans. Pearl had packed that very same book in her luggage. It was where she’d learned what a smile was.

Yes, she thought, relaxing. Olaan was not her enemy. 

“Did Gonn make a stew?” Pearl asked, moving away from Olaan and down the ladder.

Olaan made a noise of affirmation, staying where co was. Pearl knew co would watch from beside the hatch until she was safely on the ground, ready to catch her if she fell. Only then would ceir follow.

“Then we should hurry,” she said, making it to the bottom and opening the adjoining door. “It goes fast.”

*

The first thing Olaan thought when the Human captain greeted them was that his teeth were dull like Pearl’s. When they’d been younger co had been curious about the phenomena of smiling - it was something co had never seen before and had been introduced to in books. 

“Can I touch them?” 

Pearl had tilted her head, then wordlessly opened her mouth. 

“Call me this from now on.” 

A small finger pressed to the page of a simply colored book. There was a Human child pictured on it - one with a bow in its hair. Smiling. 

“Call me girl.”

There had always been an unspoken acceptance between them. Even after Olaan left ceir childhood home and began living in community, building a life of ceir own, co still visited Pearl.

The last time Olaan visited Pearl in her childhood home, she’d been alone. It was rare for her not to be. Olaan had had to squeeze ceirself through mountains of things: half-finished inventions buzzing, old books, detailed schematic drawings, food which Olaan had sent, now rotting on various countertops, and Pearl on the floor in the center of it all.

For a moment, Olaan had feared she was dead. She hadn’t been moving.

When she opened her eyes they were stained pink.

“Come live with me,” co said and without another word Pearl sat up slowly, holding out her hand.

Olaan had waited for a question, then realized what she’d wanted and taken it, lifting her to her feet. Instead of staying there she’d fallen forward, hugging ceir tightly.

“I don’t know what to do,” she’d whispered.

Olaan had led her from the house, listening to her cry. Crying was another thing unique to Pearl, a Human trait which they’d discovered in one of the books they’d bartered for.

Olaan had screamed the first time co saw Pearl cry, before they’d known. Co’d thought it was some new blood or indicative of an inner wound. 

Buen, her caretaker, had been the one to teach ceir then - though ir didn’t have a name for it either. 

The two children stumbled into the breeding cave Buen had habitually occupied and Olaan had held Pearl out into the air between them like an offering, too flustered to speak but willing something to be done.

“Take ir into your arms and hold…” Buen had said softly, nearly singing. Ey was nurturing several infants at once, still and suspended in ir stretched-thin body. Ir brain was slowed as well as ir speech from the strain. “What happened?”

“Some of the others were teasing ir because ey can’t swim as fast,” Olaan answered.

Buen hadn’t said anything after that. The only sounds had been water dripping from the ceiling, adding to the overflowing pools which wet the rock beneath Olaan’s feet, and Pearl’s sobs. It was horrific, that sight and sound. Pearl in her guardian’s grip, water flowing from her eyes, her expression distorted into an alien form of suffering as she tried to catch her breath.

It was then that Olaan had stepped forward, speaking to Buen as if in challenge.

“I will protect Pearl. Always.”

Buen had predictably said nothing but Pearl had turned, holding her arms out towards ceir. 

“Olaan…” she’d whined, still sobbing, and Buen had deposited her into Olaan’s arms before returning to ir duty of tending to the maturating infants, forgetting her.

Olaan had thought of these moments; Pearl in ceir arms, her warm body’s heartbeat, the sight of that same body crumpled and still, the mountains of rot, that small hand - when Pearl came into ceir bedroom clutching a letter and saying “I’ve found a way to contact the outside world. Will you come with me?”

Olaan shared the room with three others whom co loved; Durou, Eina, and Gonn. They’d all been asleep but later Eina would tell Olaan that co knew ceir would always pick Pearl over any of them. Then co’d jump into the sea and dart away. 

“Of course,” Olaan had promised without hesitation, though there had been worry even then. It’d begun that night as children when they’d been reading the same book shoulder-to-shoulder and Pearl had pointed to that creature, asking to be called ‘girl.’

The Human captain’s smile was grotesque - just like the ones in picture books.

Nothing like Pearl’s.