Niklas groaned. "Jahv, when do we enter this hyperwarp or whatever you called it?"
"In about ten seconds, fortunately." replied Jahv.
Ten seconds later, the stars around the shuttle seemed to shift into long, straight lines, spinning around the small vessel. This time, the inertia compensators couldn't quite keep up, and the boys felt a decided tug of gravity slam them into their seats.
Once it alleviated, they all breathed something of a sigh of relief. Niklas had alternately been paying attention to the scenery outside the window, which at this point looked like stars whipping past so fast it was honestly making him dizzy, and noticing the empty co-pilot's seat next to Jahv. He surmised that Jahv and Keyro had used some sort of standard design for shuttle building that included a two-person cockpit. Figuring the shuttle was stable enough for him to get up and walk around, Niklas unstrapped and headed over to the cockpit. "May I join you?"
Jahv smiled. "Certainly. But strap in and don't lean on anything, okay?"
Niklas sat down and buckled the harness, and took a look through the front window. That scene was even more bile-inducing than the stars shooting past sideways where he'd been. It looked like a tunnel of stars, moving impossibly fast. Niklas wasn't sure if he was getting hypnotized or was about to throw up. He decided it really didn't matter, and averted his eyes and looked at Jahv instead.
Jahv looked just a little nervous, but was hiding it well. His antennae were perked up higher than usual. Niklas found Jahv fascinating. A child from another planet. He assumed that he and Jahv were more or less the same age, but what was a year to Jahv? Did his people age at the same pace? Jahv tended to act much more mature than his appearance. That could either mean he was older, or it was just normal for his people to act that way.
Niklas had always wanted an older brother, but he didn't have one, and of course it was an impossibility as such. Jahv acted older even if he wasn't. Niklas started to think it would be pretty cool to have a brother who didn't look any older, but sort of acted like a big brother, to a point.
And Jahv's huge dark eyes, white, almost feathery hair, and green skin made him that much more interesting. It was the differences and the similarities Niklas noticed, which put together made an interesting package. Given that Jahv tended to spend most of his time naked, it was readily apparent to anyone that he was both humanoid and a boy. And yet, if one combined the eyes, the antennae, the hair, the green skin, and the fact that Jahv had only four fingers per hand and four toes per foot, it was equally clear that Jahv was something quite different from what most people defined as «human». Niklas couldn't help but stare and smile at this remarkable friend he had made, and he felt something special inside whenever he thought of him.
Jahv, meanwhile, was paying very close attention to the navigational console and trying desperately to look like he knew what he was doing more than he really did. He and Keyro had assembled this shuttle from proved design parameters, and checked out all the specifications, so in theory, it should be a fully safe and operational spacecraft. But flying the thing was a different matter. Jahv was not an experienced pilot. He'd trained on a number of simulator devices, which were more than just games, and he had done well, but his mind couldn't help but remind him that this was the real thing, and if he messed up, he and his friends were space dust, and those left behind on Earth would have a lot of explaining to do.
An experienced pilot would not find this flight a challenging one. Straight shot out and back from one planet to another along precise coordinates was what would be called, in Earth slang, a "milk run". But Jahv was finding that all of the space-survival lessons he'd had pumped into his head from the instant he could understand language at once giving him a certain measure of confidence that he was capable of making this flight safely, and making him paranoid over everything that could go wrong. But he did notice Niklas staring at him, with a big silly grin on his face. Jahv returned the smile and Niklas' face reddened somewhat.
Niklas didn't visit the tent-dome quite as often as Keith or Davy or Martin did, but his visits were becoming more frequent, and he seemed to enjoy spending time especially with Jahv, and seemed to like being as physically close as possible. Jahv didn't entirely understand this. It wasn't rude behavior, but it did strike Jahv as peculiar. It had taken Keyro, after his arrival, and after witnessing this a few times, to finally explain it.
It had been one evening when Jahv and Keyro were discussing their new friends. "Niklas is the one that mystefies me," Jahv had commented. "The others are a little more obvious. Both Davy and Keith are, in their own way, lonely. Davy has few friends in the immediate area, and Keith comes out here to escape his home situation, much as we left ours. Martin comes out here because for him, it is a safe adventure for an otherwise timid boy. But Niklas seems at once the most well-adjusted of the lot and yet the most mysterious. I can't figure him out."
"I can't figure out why you keep using those big words." said Keyro. "You put out much more static and people around here will start getting interference on their radios." The two alien boys, when on their own, of course, spoke their native language, which sounded like static to anyone else. "You don't have to impress me with your vocabulary, and I think Mom and Dad always figured you were just showing off."
Jahv huffed. "Mom and Dad probably never heard much of a word I said."
"Anyway, Niklas is easy to figure out, if you have the right perspective." said Keyro.
"Which would be —?" asked Jahv, genuinely curious.
"Mine." replied Keyro. "Niklas wants a big brother. We've heard him mention a younger sister a few times, but I think he'd rather have a big brother than be one."
"But he and I are of nearly identical age." countered Jahv.
"You also act a lot older most of the time." said Keyro. "Niklas is picking up on that. And I suspect he's probably not sure how old either one of us are. Basically, we look the same as they do, so they figure us for kids. But they're probably smart enough to consider the possibility that we might not be that close in age to them."
"But we are." said Jahv. "We figured it out one night. This world has a rotational period that is only 0.025 % different than ours. And we age at nearly the same rate."
"They don't know that." countered Keyro. "Look at it this way, big brother. You know how upset our parents would get whenever we'd just hug each other."
"They didn't like it." admitted Jahv. "Said we'd picked up bad habits from other worlds."
Keyro nodded. "These kids seem a lot more open. And they're sure a lot more fun to be around. You should open up a bit more yourself. And you might find a really good friend in Niklas if you do."
Unfortunately, to date, there hadn't been that many opportunities to really test that theory, although Jahv certainly intended to do so, but not while flying a shuttle. That didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy the boy's company, however.
And Niklas was now talking to him. "What's your world like, Jahv?" Niklas asked.
Jahv recalled that Niklas had not been along on the holocron expedition recently. "Boring, frankly. There's some areas, mostly nature reserves. But we're not a people who do much with design, or art, or decoration. Everything is designed to be functional and not much else."
Niklas frowned at that, but then grinned again as he asked another question. "Isn't it just a little weird to run around naked most of the time when most everyone else is dressed?"
Jahv shrugged. "Not if that's what you were brought up to think of as normal. Besides, it's convenient."
"Convenient?" asked Niklas.
"Sure, you can pee anywhere you have to on a moment's notice." replied Jahv.
Niklas gave the green-skinned youngster an expression of combined alarm and skepticism. "Yes, I'm kidding." snickered Jahv. "Sorry, I guess I still have to work on my sense of humor."