Bored

In order to snag expats to interview, I kinda have to shadow the embassy on Endard. I really cannot enter the embassy because of the warrants for my arrest. The ambassador has said he would not enforce the warrants – interesting since he used to be a sheriff’s deputy – but I just don’t want to chance it.

So, I camp out in the residential part of the apartment building. The upper stories serve as the actual embassy. The lower stories are residences. Several of the occupants here became unwitting residents here on Endard. Not that anyone is complaining. The embassy has a gate so they can visit Earth anytime they want. Heck, some still commute to their jobs on Earth, though many telecommute nowadays.

The apartment building is so… Earthling. It sits on a bluff that overlooks a bay on Endard. Down there you can see one of the mangrove cities that the Selkies live in. We’re like four hundred feet up, I think. Looks like it. Or five hundred. Tropical, exotic plants, little insect-like butterfly-dragons flitting about. Larger dragons flying overhead. And, the apartment building. What a stark contrast.

It’s fifteen stories tall, covers like a quarter of a city block, and actually has a parking garage, though it’s no longer accessible from outside. Not that there are any cars here anyway. Brick, concrete, and windows from bottom to the top story, and there’s actually a greenhouse on the roof. And a penthouse apartment, if you can call it that. Now that apartment is part of the embassy gate complex. I cannot go up there, sadly. But it’s easy to see from the shuttles here.

I typically hang out in the reception area on the main floor. It’s risky, I know. But I always keep the front door in view. There used to be apartments down here, but they ripped out a couple of them to make this area. Thankfully, they kept the almost vintage motif in the decor. Looks like an upscale hotel lobby from the ’30s.

My first interview was James Coventry. I was able to snag him when he arrived for an appointment with the ambassador. That fella is a character. And he is supposed to be the founder of the Cooperative. Seriously. A human, or rather, a Terran. The Cooperative has humans who are not quite human, but who am I to argue? James is a Terran and he, one of us, is going to form what will become an alliance of over a thousand alien worlds? Just blows my mind. He expects to leave one day, traveling over a hundred thousand years into the past. The next time we hear from him will be from archeologists.

Since nearly all expats filter through the embassy at some time or another, I am opting to camp out here and try to grab one for some coffee and a chat. Local coffee, even. Jonah brought several of his coffee trees from his greenhouse at the Homestead and got them growing here on Endard. That’s right. We are putting our mark on alien worlds. Coffee. An apartment building. What’s next?

Okay, so I am doodling now. Creating a B-roll blog post while I wait. It gets kinda boring, sometimes. If someone doesn’t arrive, I may start hunting them down. Sally and Jonah spend a lot of time in Fahele on Syagria. Brandon Williams spends his days on Dherring. That dude is getting some serious quads on that high-gravity planet. The rest of the Williams clan tends to stick to their village down on the coast. I could go down there.

But I am really hoping Steven Crow stops by. He is everywhere, it seems. And nowhere. Fella is hard to nail down. But I’ll tie him down if I have to. Okay, maybe not. He is sort of a god nowadays, but still very much a person. But he and Asherah are kinda why I am exiled in the first place, so he owes me an interview.

Oh, I see Ambassador Ashley Loren. And now he sees me. I think we’re either going to have that interview I want, or I am about to sprint to the door.