Waiting Shapeless

Chapter 2. Junit

Tyler: Human

Tyler walked hastily down the smooth stone walkway, passing by some very impressive structures without even glancing at them. If she kept up a good pace, she would get to the CSC headquarters exactly on time.

The whole planet of Junit was gorgeous. Every building had been constructed with the greatest architects the universe could provide. With its fantastic parks and beautiful, never changing season of perfect temperatures, Junit was the ideal building location of every business and homeowner.

But only the ultra wealthy could lay hands on even a small corner of the planet. Tyler was lucky the organization she worked for had its headquarters here.

Tyler's Halo bobbed up and down as she paced down the sunny street. She had a couple of her own Halos, but she always used the expensive ones that the first class arrival stations handed out for free on the ritzy planets such as Junit.

Quite an ingenious contraption, the floating ring was a little smaller than her head and stayed about a hands length distance above her at all times. This particular Halo was a metallic white with the intergalactic station's logo on it. Tyler wasn't quite sure how it worked, but somehow it gave its user the mix of air needed to survive, it protected them from harmful radiation levels, and it warped the user's gravity and air pressure to something they were accustomed to.

Basically, it allowed beings to walk around on habitable planets without having to wear a bulky space suit. She thought maybe Humans had invented it due to the name, but her species wasn't know for ingenious technology, so probably not.

Soon she had reached the commercial section of the city. The large buildings stood far above the pretty suburban homes Tyler had just walked through.

Even though it was a commercial area, the landscape was still breathtakingly gorgeous. Large fountains spayed some type of fluid into the air in gravity defying patterns, bright and fragrant flowers of every color lined the walkways, perfectly groomed trees rustled in the slight breeze... it was perfection.

Many of the more temporal beings in the galaxy considered Junit to be terrestrial heaven, and Tyler could see why.

But unfortunately she didn't have time to enjoy the beauty of the landscape.

Tyler walked briskly on, her golden blond hair dancing behind her in the warm air. There were a few beings out enjoying the gardens and bustling to or from work.

She looked around briefly to see if there were any faces she recognized.

She could name most of the species she saw because of her job. There was a family of Capozeeri smelling the exotic flowers, a short Dohaydo walking staunchly down a path in the distance, a male Cito and a female Gonos stood on the grass discussing business.

She listened to each of their home planet languages, some jittery and squeaky, others low and sweeping. None of them were speaking Olten, the Pentaversal language that every species learned to speak since childhood, so she understood nothing. Although it was surprisingly relaxing for her to hear and not understand. She could tone it out more easily.

It was such a beautiful day. She would have to see if there was time to enjoy the scenery after the meeting.

Suddenly a distinct memory flashed into her mind. Tyler was walking down this exact same path years ago, but with her sister.

Maty had been so jealous of Tyler when she had found out that she got to travel to Junit for work meetings. Tyler had arranged for her and Maty to go together a few days before the CSC meeting so that they could relax and enjoy the scenery together before work started up again.