Ooh'squi was simply a simple Elek'ar who desperately wanted to live a simple life. Unfortunately, that was not to be found on Earth.
This morning, like any other, he was beginning his usual routine of gently sliding out of his twin-sized bed without waking his mate of nearly 50 cycles, Eee'stee, before giving her a soft nuzzle on her forehead. He hated having to get dressed in the human's clothes every day, not being able to afford custom Elek'ar tailors and instead being embarrassingly fitted in clothing made for their youth. He simply didn't understand why on human worlds, Elek'ar could not wear simply their furs. It had been their way long before the humans discovered them.
He also hated having to slip on that black, tight and chafing suit that left his furs wet with sweat nearly as much as coming into work on days like today, when he had been ordered to come in early and work the morning shift. The yellow sun of Earth's system was far too bright for an old Elek's small eyes. It gave him a headache.
Nevertheless, he had to take care of his clan, and for his last act before leaving, he attached the small silver and blue-lit necklace that translated his thoughts into their meandering, loud human languages to his neck. Prepared for the day, Ooh'squi waddled out the door of his small, even by Elek'ar standards, apartment and took the hoverlift up to the surface of Meridian. Even though he left home at 4am local time, hoping to beat the crowd and knowing his small legs made it difficult to be on-time, the elevator was packed with humans far too much to his liking. Oftentimes, the tall hairless ones were too busy reading messages or entranced by some other form of handheld device to even notice him, yet the occasional elbows to his snout were far more preferable to the times a human that was at most half his age would talk down to him and call him "cute". Even Oskans and Vitarii showed far more respect and restraint than those sorts of humans.
Thankfully, today was one of the former as he finally hit the still-dark surface of the station that wrapped around Earth's equator. There was an irony in the fact that a people who had dwelled in the subterraneous region of their prior home had never even touched the surface of the one they had migrated to. Instead of Earth itself, Ooh'squi's grandfather had settled the clan on "The Belt", the largest and most metropolitan of the ringed stations orbiting Earth, situated thousands of kilometers in orbit directly around its equator and housing billions.
The humans, their silhouettes barely illuminated by the early morning light, who had disembarked with him were already far ahead of Ooh'squi as he made a sudden swerve to the right. The humans who were awake at this hour, even on the streets of restless Meridian, were all taking the trains towards the industrial districts; they were craftsmen and factory workers. Those were the only humans who lived in the lower decks of Meridian amongst the aliens.
Ooh'squi was again alone as he ploddingly treked towards the empty trains that would send him to the Defense District a few sectors of Meridian to the east. His brown furs, now matted in specks of grey, were already soaked from the labor of his travel. Like every day lately, and maybe not so lately, he thought, he was tired of life in the human metropolis. Sometimes he even questioned how his ancestors, just a few generations prior, could have let themselves be revealed to the humans. He wondered how they could have even left Elek at all, the never-ending civil war be damned.
Yet these feelings quickly faded as he looked out the window of his train at the tall towers and flying ships speeding across Meridian, and down at the beautiful blue sphere it orbited around. Even with his eyes straining more and more with each centimeter the sun rose above the horizon, he felt the one small bit of peace he would ever get living amongst the humans and their ilk. He knew this was the better way. For all his stress, his clan was safe and well-fed, and he had risen far higher than most Elek'ar would. He closed his small, beaded eyes and rubbed his wet snout until his empty train, speeding at over 1,000 kilometers per hour, had reached the Citadel.
When he arrived, the train had picked up many more passengers, primarily humans, from the disctricts closer to the Citadel. Again, squeezing through barely noticed at just waist height, Ooh'squi managed to make it out the doors faster than usual. Immediately ahead, the Citadel was as immense a building as he had ever seen, yet Ooh'squi mustered the might every time he arrived to scale its pale, marble steps up to his entrance, a non-descript small door far to the right of the military entrance. Again, as always stood the officers at the security checkpoint. This time they were led by a tall, young, dark haired human Ooh'squi did not recognize; "Kristos" was the name listed on his tag, and the scowl on his face as the Elek'ar approached confused Ooh'squi.
"Where to, mole? Analytics?" the man asked with the bite of hatred. This had fortunately not been too common in the Citadel compared to other districts, especially with the usual guards who knew him, but Ooh'squi was all too familiar with it in the districts closer to home.
Nevertheless, he did not take the bait. "Yes." the human voice emanating from the speakers on his neck translated his affirmative squeaks. Ooh'squi quickly held up his tags for scanning and marched through the blackened alley leading to his office. Yet, as he approached the doors to Analytics, he noticed something he had never noticed before. Screaming, banging, marching noises all coming from behind the door.
Baffled, the little Elek'ar scanned his card and saw the scene behind the pale doors as they slid open. Humans were storming back and forth across the expansive office, loud chatter was coming from the back offices, and right at the front desk were several military-garbed humans shouting at one another.
"What is happening?!" shouted one of the men, an older, balding and pale human, his white uniform emblazoned with several medals indicating some sort of high rank at the Citadel.
A much younger woman, her brunette crown shaved in the fashion of human military regulations, in matching garbs with yet even more medals than the man, put her hand on his shoulder. Her bright green eyes, so much larger than those of an Elek'ar, conveyed one emotion Ooh'squi had learned to read in the aliens: fear. "Something big. Something very, very big."
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