Surprise party - How Umaii met Taq - Part 2

March 3, 2026

These events take place just after Unknown Variables: Secrets of Soubos (coming soon), which occurs right after Astra Fauna: Expeditions, so yeah, those books are referenced but I tried my best to keep it light so you could still enjoy this tale. This is a light, stand alone with some mild spoilers for the other two books. I, personally, think it’s safe to read now, but you can make that call.
USA copies
International copies

Note: These are unedited. Typos and grammatical errors may be present but if/when I turn these into an official book, those will be addressed by my editor. Right now, these serve as little worldbuilding and character development snippets for both me and you to enjoy. I’m just playing here. :)

Only four more meetings before you can go home…
Why did I accept all these meeting invites?
Only three more meetings before you can go home…
I should eat something, but I’m not hungry.

Only two more meetings before you can go home…
At the very least I need to make myself eat a snack.
Only one more meeting before you can go home…

The day Umaii was released from quarantine had been exhausting.

Culturally, Inquiry prides itself on efficiency, but, often, Umaii wished the world would stop trying to move so ruthlessly fast. True, if they’d requested a rest, they’d have been granted it, but it was easier to just click, “Yes” and get it over with, or was it?

They didn’t have a good answer for that one. They certainly felt like every drop of energy had been used up.

In the end, however, they’d done it - endure the seemingless endless stream of meetings about their mission, Graham, and if they’d be comfortable with more testing. Umaii had agreed to it all.

They dozed on the tram home; their head intermittently bumping up against a pole as the train made its scheduled stops. Even Graham seemed too tired to care. Umaii felt it curl up and hide on their head.

Finally, the tram reached the end of the line and Umaii exited. They lived in one the newest developed sections of Inquiry. The building was a new experiment in housing populations with varying living requirements. Arboreal and flighted species were housed near the top, terrestrial species were housed in the middle, and semi-aquatic or high humidity species were housed at the base.

Umaii loved their home. They lived on the lowest level with a few members of their own species plus some others that had similar needs.

The unifying feature of Umaii’s floor was a shallow, temperature controlled pool of filtered rainwater which served as a large communal common area. Everyone living on Umaii’s floor needed to soak for at least a small amount of time daily.

Contrary to what many thought, Umaii liked people, they just didn’t want to be the center of attention - ever. So a place to hydrate and listen to the hum of the apartment was a big reason they'd moved in.

However, today, they’d skip all that. Much as they missed the communal pool with all its features, they had a bath in their room that would be the level of quiet they currently craved. If they were lucky, they could slip in unnoticed and avoid any, “welcome home” sorts of conversations.

They would go home, bathe, and go to bed.

This list of events was the sole promise that kept Umaii going on the short walk home which felt like a full on trek. Their entire body felt heavy and achy, but that wouldn’t matter soon.

Soon, they’d be home. It would be quiet. It would be comfortable. This day could finally end.

They rounded the final corner, and saw Taq with two of Umaii’s roommates standing outside the common area’s door. Taq’s normally smiling face was overtaken by a massive grin and Umaii’s two roommates had similar expressions.

A cold panic gripped Umaii’s heart. “Oh…oh no…” they thought, “whatever, they have planned, I don’t want it near me.” Graham began to stir, and Umaii took a second to breathe. “It’s okay, Graham, quiet now,” they pleaded. Luckily, Graham’s chattering reduced to a dull grumble.

“H….hi,..ummm,” Umaii realized that they had no idea what their roommate’s names were, “everyone. Do…you need to get inside?” They nodded at the door.

Taq, “no troubles there,” she nudged Umaii’s roommates, “My two co-conspirators and I have already gotten everything set up!”

Umaii’s heart sank even further, “set…up?”

Taq continued, “yeah, as it turns out, Lisi and Eahu here, are in my group session at the gym over by the flat bread place, and they said that they love to help do something super nice for your homecoming since they heard from the flat bread place owner that your mission was a rough one. Granted the flat bread place guy heard that from me the day earlier, but he was game for helping out too and as it turns out the flat bread place guy’s sibling owns the tea shop that’s in this part of town, which is the one that you mentioned earlier, so we decided to throw you a welcome home party!”

Umaii took a second to process. They liked Taq, they really did, but they were beyond exhausted, and Taq, well, Taq had a reputation.

Umaii sighed, “How many people are in my house right now, Taqriel?” they asked as they felt the very last shred of patience leave their body.

Graham yipped once before Umaii shook their head a little which quieted it down again.

Taq looked toward Graham’s hiding place before shrugging and turning to open the door. “None,” she said with no small amount of glee. “Well, at least, none on your floor.”

Umaii peeked inside. “Surprise.” Taq said, “It’s not a party!” and true to her word, there was a streamer that said, “Surprise! It’s a Party” with the word “Not” taped on it.

Walking inside, Umaii inhaled at the state of their home.

The lights had been dimmed and a tiny speaker was on the countertop.
“It’s Lisi’s but they said you can borrow it to play whatever music you want.” Taq explained when Umaii looked at it.

The living area was spotless, even some small repairs had been made to a few of the tiles. It was the cleanest Umaii has ever seen the pool which now looked much more like a private spa than a communal living space.

Placed on a small table by the pool was a book of short stories, a box of tea biscuits, and three tiny clay pots, “We had no idea what flavor of leaf water you liked, so these are their three most popular.” Taq explained.

“Oh! And these too,” Taq said as she placed a little fuzzy bed designed for a small domestic animal on the floor along with a bright yellow ball. “For the…” she nodded at Graham, “your new pet?”

Umaii felt a pang of guilt, “you did all this?”

Taq’s big eyes stretched even wider and she put her hands up, “oh no! This is from me, the other three, your roommates, the flat bread guy and the tea house person.” She continued, “my original idea was a huge house party, but everyone made some good points as to why that might be one of your least favorite things to experience.”

Umaii thought the relief she felt came out in the softest of sighs, but Taq grinned when she heard it. “Fair enough,” she said before continuing, “The louder party is at the flat bread place’s outdoor section, if you want to come. It’s all your roommates from this floor and,” she shrugged, “anyone who shows up to be honest.”

Taq nodded upwards, “lots of the rest of them said they’d head down too, so this place should be nice and quiet for at least a few hours, I guess?

“How?” Umaii began, “How did you pull this off?”

“Ahhhh that was easy,” Taq said, “I just organized the massive party I was planning on having here over there!”

Umaii glanced around the quiet room, their gifts, and Graham’s gifts. “Thank you. This is…This is…”

Taq cocked her head slightly at Umaii’s distant tone, “Did we guess wrong about you? Do you actually want to hit the big party?”

“No!” Umaii said, “Ummm, I mean, ‘no thank you’.”

“But…?” Taq prompted.

“This is…perfect, “Umaii said, “for tonight, but, ummm, I can’t eat a box of biscuits on my own…and, ehrm, would you like to maybe stop by tomorrow? Quarantine was awful and I want to stop thinking about it.”

Taq face brightened, “I’d love to! We can eat snacks and,”

“Read books?” Umaii asked.

Taq blinked but quickly collected herself, “Eat snacks and quietly read books, got it! Looking forward to it.”

Umaii smiled, “Same and thanks again. I’ll have to thank the others too.”

“Want me to bring them along tomorrow?” Taq asked.

Umaii thought for a moment before saying, “yeah, if they're not busy.”

“On it!” Taq said, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Rest up, okay? You deserve it.”

“I will.” Umaii said with a tiny wave as Taq left.

Surprise party - How Umaii met Taq - Part 1

March 3, 2026

Surprise party - How Umaii met Taq

Part One
Soubos had been a mess. Upon returning to Inquiry for what normally would have been writing reports and filing paper work, Umaii was immediately sent to a medical facility to be treated for bruising, abrasions, lacerations, dehydration, and burns. Although their arm had largely healed on its own, it still felt a bit tingly as well, but perhaps that was all in their head? It was hard to sort out.

The medical facility was a mild nightmare as well. The very first thing the nurses did was to try to separate Graham from them, to give Graham medical care, and the sheer volume of their howls made Umaii’s chest tighten so badly they almost wanted to join Graham in their screaming.

Luckily, the staff relented in mere moments and the pair was put in a quarantined area together. After that, Graham had taken to hiding in the colorful lobes on Umaii’s head - which really just served to make it appear like Umaii’s head was growling at most people.

Having Graham was, usually, annoying, but, sometimes, when they huddled into themselves to cry when the grief of Soubos got too intense, it was nice to have - whatever Graham was - wailing alongside them.

Due to Graham’s presence, the pair remained in quarantine for twice as long as Umaii would have needed in more normal circumstances. It was necessarily clinical, and intensely lonely.

Until three days ago…

Tap, tap, tap!

Graham was snarling before the 1st tap had finished resonating. Umaii had been “reading” also called “dozing while holding a book”. It was late; they should have gotten off their soft, circular chair and into their bed hours ago, but the chair had been far too warm and squishy to allow for such a maneuver.

Umaii started fully awake and squinted at the glass that served as one wall of their room, their eyes taking a few moments to accept what was their current reality.

Pressed against the glass was a poster. On this poster was an endearingly cute depiction of what Umaii suspected was themself but with neon colored wings. Under the drawing was written, “Free in Three Days!”, and holding this artistic calamity was Taq, with a grin on her face. She vigorously pointed to the sign, then to Umaii, and back to the sign.

The absurdity of the moment caught up with Umaii and they found themselves laughing. Graham immediately quieted and went back to dozing. Umaii barely knew Taq; they had spoken briefly only a couple of times, and yet, here she was - with a fairly ridiculous sign, in the middle of the night.

Umaii, still chuckling a little, approached the door and touched a button, “I didn’t know how much I needed that. Thank you, and you know you can talk to me, right? Hold down the button”. They pointed to a second button on Taq’s side of the glass.

Taq dropped the sign and Umaii could see her mouth say, “Yes!” before she hopped to the button and pressed, “This is great! This is so much better than having to make hundreds of signs, which I was prepared to do…” Umaii noticed a very stuffed pack hanging from Taq’s shoulders, “but this is way easier! How are you? Today is the first hour of the first day you’re allowed visitors! Oh! This is visitation hours for nocturnal species by the way, and I promised that I wouldn’t wake you up if you were asleep. Are you nocturnal too? I was just going to leave the sign and go, but you were reading, so…”

Umaii blinked; they were still processing the fact that Taq had come ready to communicate via signage, but when they heard, “How are you?” they focused back to reality and answered, “I’m…I’m still sore, but I’m ready enough to go. I would like to go home.”

Taq didn’t falter for a moment and seamlessly shifted back to that point of the conversation, “I can absolutely understand! I would very literally be climbing on the walls if I had to be in there for as long as you’ve been in there. Anyway, I wanted to make sure you were holding up okay. Do they give you enough food?”

Umaii gave a short burst of laughter, “Oh course they are, but, it’s…well, it’s…”
“Bleg?” Taq added helpfully.

“Yeah, it’s bleg.” Umaii admitted.

Taq scrunched her face up, and added, “Can’t stand to see a friend having to survive on bad food. Tell you what, when you get out, we’ll get something actually good to eat? Does that sound like a good plan to you?”

Umaii nodded, “There’s a tea house near my place, I would sincerely love to have a few of their biscuits again.”

“Perfect!” Taq said, “Biscuits it is!”

Crisps and Friendships - How Taq met Veidat

February 20, 2026

These events take place just Astra Fauna: Expeditions, but it’s barely referenced.
USA copies
International copies

Note: These are unedited. Typos and grammatical errors may be present but if/when I turn these into an official book, those will be addressed by my editor. Right now, these serve as little worldbuilding and character development snippets for both me and you to enjoy. I’m just playing here. :)

Often, the object of our desire exists in a nebulous realm of both perfection and unobtainability. It dwells on the edges of our senses, taunting us.

In Taqriel’s case, this object was the last box of crisps.

Not just any box of crisps, this one was made specifically from insect protein and Taq had not had the pleasure of indulging in such a delicacy in an extremely discourteous amount of time.

The crisps stood behind the glass paneling on the highest shelf in the supply pantry in the Ghazen dormitory, where all recipients of the grant had been called in for debriefing.

Anyone was allowed to get food from the pantry, either snacks or ingredients, between meals which were prepped by a staff member at designated times. This was not one of those times.

She sighed and peeked around. She was alone, aside from the sun which was just starting to brighten the world with a new day. It was the perfect time to acquire her last snack of the day…

Then in the silence she heard a faint “click”. The door to the supply pantry opened and a second click flooded the room with artificial light.

Taq’s four ears shifted towards the doorway and she heard a soft tapping of nails on the hard floor. She was just about to make her presence known; it would not have been nice to scare someone who thought they were in the pantry alone, when Veidat emerged from behind a shelf into the same aisle Taq was in.

They saw each other and Veidat made a chittering noise in her throat, jumped back, and vibrated her wings. Taq waved and smiled, “Hey there! My bad. I didn't mean to startle you!”

Exhaling and running the palm of her right primary hand over the two antennae on her head, Veidat held up a singular finger with her left primary hand. Then she used her secondary hands to switch on a device in her wrist.

She made a series of what sounded like clicks, chirps, and buzzes and the little wearable device on her wrist said with a slightly robotic tone, “Why were you standing here in the dark?! I did not expect you.”

Taq shrugged, “it’s predawn, it’s hardly dark.” Veidat made a soft noise that Taq couldn’t place as amusement or annoyance, so she continued, “I was trying to get a snack before bed. I just got in. I’m starving. Haven’t eaten in an hour.”

Veidat inclined her head, “I understand.”

Taq didn’t know Veidat well. True to her reputation, she’d run off on her mission before getting to know any of the other grant recipients. She knew them peripherally, of course, from various missives, papers, profile photos, professional biographies, and other things of that nature, but she’d never actually been in the same room as them before.

Taq didn’t feel much in the way of fear, but she could absolutely understand why members of the Locas Mass could be perceived as intimidating.

The males of the species were rugged individuals, fantastic workers, stronger than they looked, and stood about a head and shoulders taller than Taq.

But Veidat, being female, towered over them. She was brilliantly yellow with petal-like protrusions along her long partially-spiked limbs. Taq only came up to her knee if she was thinking generously of her height. Veidat stood in a relaxed but ready stance that reminded Taq of her friends who were far more athletic than her. “I wonder if she’d want to play in…?” she found herself wondering, when she noticed a shift in her companion.

Veidat’s antennae drooped as her posture changed, she closed her stance and tucked her wings closer to her body. Placing her primary and secondary right hands on her left arms, she clicked a few times and the synthetic voice of her wearable said, “I did not intend to frighten you. I am sorry” She squatted down to be closer to Taq’s height.

“Oh! No! I wasn’t scared. You didn’t come off that way. You’re fine.”

“You are smaller than me. You do not need to be afraid. I am not here to do harm.”

“Of course you aren’t!” Taq said, “I know you aren’t. You've written a dozen papers on baby oceanic mammals and their parents - which are pretty good, by the way - that sort of person isn’t exactly what I’d call, “high risk”, then again, I don’t think most people are high risk, maybe in a bad mood, sure, but…”

Veidat’s antenna rose and criss-crossed each other, “You read them?” The synthetic voice of the wearable didn’t convey the surprised and pleased tones Taq detected in her chirps.

“Absolutely! I read them as you put them out. Kindichi sounds neat. Maybe I could go sometime.”

“I think you would be well received. They talk a lot. You talk a lot.”

“One of my finer skills,” Taq grinned, “Now back to the matter at hand. I can’t help but notice that, out of this entire room of food, you came here, to this spot - quite quickly, I might add, and, obviously, you aren't here to harm me, as you say, and I do, one hundred percent, believe you, which begs the question - why are you here?”

Veidat stood and pointed, “I want to eat those.”

She was, of course, pointing at the most wonderful, most rare, box of delicious, amazing crisps that Taq had ever seen in the past few months.

“I see,” Taq said, trying to act casual, “So, are you going to fly up and get them?”

Veidat made a soft noise that sounded disappointed, “My contract forbids flying in interior spaces that are less than seven meters. I am worried that if I try to jump, I will damage the panels, or my head.”

Her multi-faceted eyes looked down at Taq, “You are going to climb up to them?”

Taq grumbled, adding, “My contract forbids climbing on any surfaces designated for food preparation, so…”

“And the lifts are still broken?” Viedat asked.

“They get fixed tomorrow, errr, today, this afternoon.” Taq replied

Veidat clicked and Taq snickered as softly as she could when the wearable tactfully didn’t translate that utterance.

For a moment they both stood and stared at their prize.

“Hey, uhhh, so kinda an odd question but, mind if I ask you something?” Taq shuffled a bit as she said it.

Veidat inclined her angular head, her antenna drooping slightly and said, with a hint of trepidation in her clicks. “You can ask me.”

Taq continued, “Are you actual royalty for your people, or is that, like, a catch all phrase for females of your species? It’s been hard for me to tell based on what people have written about your species and it seems like it’s both, but I wanted to check with you, about you, specifically.”

Veidat made a noise that Taq was certain meant amusement and replied, “Yes. That is a complex answer.”

“So you are royalty, or, like their leader, or something, official like that?”

There was a short pause, a small exhale, then, “No. I am not that.”

Taq relaxed, “Okay great!” She grinned, “because I figured this would be super rude to ask someone who was, royal blood or an elected official, but…Can I climb on you? Or, if you don’t want that, maybe you could pick me up? I bet if you picked me up or I climbed on you, we could open the panel and get the crisps.”

There was a pause.

A long one.

Her antenna slowly crossed again and since Taq didn’t really know what that meant, she continued, “then we split the crisps 50/50, and go play tiles!” Taq waited, studying Veidat’s face for any hints of how her request would be received.

Squinting the muscles around her eyes into what appeared to be the approximation of a smile, Veidat replied “I am not designated for food preparation. Yes. You may climb me.”