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“I—” Sazahk popped his head up from his tablet with a pout, then cut himself off. He ducked his head and swiped twice on his tablet screen. Gray peaked over his collarbone. “Forgot. That was when the data from the study on odor molecules finished downloading and I wanted to get Fal’ran started on the titration right away.”
Patrick shook his head with a sigh. There was no point scolding Sazahk about that. He walked over to Fal’ran and peered over his shoulder. “What did he get you started on?”
“Titration.” Fal’ran didn’t look up as he replied, too focused on slowly, slowly squeezing another droplet into one of the test tubes lined up in front of him. “Whatever that is.”
“It’s a measurement tool.” Turner’s voice on the desk confused Patrick until he saw Fal’ran’s tablet propped in front of him, with Turner’s face on that screen, too. “By adding little bits of the blue solution to the contents of the test tubes, we find out more about each of those solutions.”
“Like how long it takes Bar’in’s nose to identify it.” The proud glint in Fal’ran's eye convinced Patrick not to scowl at Turner. Fal’ran tapped the glass vial in Bar’in’s hand. “What was that one?”
“Strawberry.” Bar’in placed the tube in the empty rack to his left. “What, can’t you tell?”
“Shut up.” Fal’ran rolled his eyes and jerked his chin at the tube he’d finished dropping the blue liquid into. “This one next.”
“And what exactly are you all doing in here?” Patrick raised an eyebrow when Tar tilted his head back and Sazahk pointed a penlight up his left nostril.
“Investigating Tar’s anosmia.” Sazahk craned his neck to get a better angle on the inside of Tar’s skull. “With the intention of restoring his olfactory sense, if possible, not that there’s anything wrong with a klah’eel that can’t smell. Anyone who thinks otherwise is startlingly small minded considering most other species don’t have the ability to the extent klah’eel do and discovered space-faring tech—”
Bar’in waved a hand. “Yeah, that and making Sazahk use the actual science lab some bigwig Qeshian Emissary gave him instead of scattering his junk all over our tiny room.”
Sazahk shot Bar’in a resentful look. “I’d prefer our tiny room over this overbearing, pointed, condescending power play.”
Patrick raised his eyebrows. Who gave out labs as power plays?
“Well, at the least, the power play has a window.” Bar’in pointed at the wall of glass. “And you have to admit, the view’s better from up here.”
“Oh yes, nothing inspires scientific pursuit quite like a clear view of the planet-wide devastation caused by unhinged technology.” Sazahk scowled and moved his penlight over to Tar’s right nostril.
“What happened to it, anyway?” Fal’ran stretched after finishing his last test tube, his shoulders popping and his flexing muscles catching Patrick’s eye inappropriately. He frowned, though. Did Fal’ran really not know? It was a standard history lesson. Fal’ran pointed his chin at Qesha as he stretched. “That half of the planet.”
“We did.” Sazahk bent over his tablet, tapping away.
Patrick mentally slapped himself. Fal’ran was so clever and shrewd and quick to pick things up, Patrick forgot how poor his education was. Intelligence alone didn’t teach you facts. He considered how to launch his impromptu history lesson, but Dominic Turner beat him to it.
“The qesh advanced much earlier than the rest of us,” Dominic began, his tone free of judgment, kind, and interested. Patrick dialed down his dislike a half notch. “They didn’t anticipate all the perils of their growth. How could they?”
“Oh, we could have,” Sazahk muttered without looking up.
Dominic quirked a smile down at Sazahk’s head before shrugging at Fal’ran. “Maybe they could have, maybe they couldn’t have. It was a long time ago. The accepted story these days is that by the time they realized the effect they’d had on their planet, infighting, denial, and an attachment to the decisions they’d already made kept them from addressing it. Famine broke out. Then war.”
“That bit is from the war part.” Sazahk pointed at the orange half of the planet.
“The qesh that survived became a single state, the Qesh we know now. They’ve oriented their foreign policy around preventing the same thing from happening to other species. Starting with the Klah’Eel.” Dominic inclined his head at them. “They credit themselves with the continued biodiversity of Klah and surrounding Klah’Eel planets, despite the Klah’Eel now being a space-faring species in their own right.”
“There’s some tension over that, too.” Patrick crossed his arms, remembering the version of the story he’d been taught. “They provide us technology, but never all of it, and they slap sanctions on us any time our own industries develop a little too far for their tastes.”
“The Senate is nothing if not overbearing.” Sazahk rotated on his stool and gestured for Tar to lift his chin again.
“And after all this time, the Qesh still haven’t fixed it?” Fal’ran raised an eyebrow, expression skeptical as he looked between Dominic and Sazahk.
“Fixed what? Their attitudes?” Sazahk’s eyes still up Tar’s nose, he made a motion at Bar’in to hand him one of the test tubes.
Fal’ran scowled. “No, their planet.”
“Haven’t found a way yet,” Dominic shrugged. “The land is poisonous. No one can survive for long.”
“And it’s political, of course.” Sazahk ran the tube under Tar’s nose. “Inhale.” He observed Tar’s deep breath through his nose. “There’s a large faction that thinks it should remain uninhabitable to remind us all of our shame. The great motivator of Qeshian society.”
Fal’ran glanced at Patrick as though to ensure Patrick thought it all sounded like bullshit, too, and Patrick nodded. He stifled his laugh as Fal’ran made another face and crossed his arms.
