"And...and this...this is Endless Song Echoing Upon the Depths."
Lou had never seen a Upkin diplomat in the flesh before, not since he had first set foot on Earth what felt like weeks but was in actuality years before. But he had seen them on the screen and read about them in book and he had rather foolishly thought that he had maybe gotten at least a fraction of what it was like. He had told himself that it wouldn't be too shocking, if he mentally prepared himself.
I'm really dumb sometimes,
Lou thought, his hands shaking as Beatrice stepped past him to the edge of the artificial ocean and looked down upon Endless Song.
It wasn't that Lou was
scared
precisely. It was just that he was in sheer awe: the Upkin diplomat was nearly thirty meters long from the incredibly broad sweep of her nose to the curved flukes of her tail, which lifted from the water, creating a glittering cascade of water droplets, sloughing down into the artificial ocean. It was not a true blue whale in shape and conformation -- there had been modifications and additions to adapt the cranium to the initial purpose of the uplifted blues. There were the extra bone spurs along the forehead that were supposed to contain implanted radio antenna, there were the extra eyes for situational awareness, and there were the tentacles that frilled off the sides of her ribbed cheeks, each able to reach out almost twelve meters and grasp with the same strength as a human man.
One such tentacle flowed from the water and reached out to Beatrice -- who was using her moth body for this meet and greet. She gingerly took the tentacle tip in her own dark hand and shook it as the entire artificial ocean seemed to buzz with a deep, resounding song.
The translation harness that Endless Song wore turned that song into a cheerful, matronly voice.
"It is an absolute delight to meet you, Beatrice Benoit."
Beatrice knelt down, her eyes wide. "Your body is very similar to the designs I used for my bioforms in the upper atmospheres of gas giants. But far more dense!" She paused, then blushed. "A-And by that, I mean, I hope that you did not have too uncomfortable trip from orbit!" She looked up at Lou, clearly hoping she had said the right thing. Lou gave her a tiny smile -- honestly, after the past few days, he wasn't sure if there
was
something that Beatrice could say to offend the Upkin.
"You try having a calf or two, ha ha!" the blue whale's chuckle was as warm as her normal habitat was cold. "Oh, I do hate space travel -- but no one else in the Upkin was up to heading all the way out here to continue the peace talks."
"I admit, I am confused by this talk of continuing the peace talks," Beatrice said, sitting down and casually dangling her legs down into the water -- which made Lou freeze. In the long annals of interactions between the Neopolitan Star Kingdom and the Upkin, he knew that the deepest, most easy offense to give was to 'treat them like animals.' Though no Upkin had ever actually been
kept
in zoos, the cultural memory of it had soaked into them like a burn after having scalding water dropped on you. It stung still, centuries later. But if Endless Song was disturbed, she didn't show it. Instead, bioluminescent patterns that had been designed for giving orders and signals to deep sea commandos flickered in a complex geometric pattern along her back.
"If there is any way that I can elucidate for you..."
Beatrice nodded. "Well, I have stopped fighting humans. And humans have stopped fighting me. And I have married Louis. And we have consummated our relationship, though he has yet to sire a child in my body with wombs, but that isn't required for the peace talks. What more is there to talk about?"
"Quite a forward wife for a Neo," Endless Song said, her voice full of mirth at Lou's mortification. He sat down beside Bea, whispering to her.
"You know, ah, you don't
have
to tell people..."
"I am attempting to train you out of your mortification," Bea said, cheerfully. "No one else in the United Human Polities is ashamed of or embarrassed by their sexuality. And furthermore, I enjoy bragging about you, my husband." She smiled, then looked down at Endless Song. "I think I am going to be as transformative for the Neopolitan Star Kingdom as they have been for me!"
"That seems quite likely!" Endless Song laughed. "But to tell you, honestly, these peace talks were arranged while our understanding of you was more rudimentary. You had not even chosen a name at that point, and we did not know the true extent of your hive mind's capacities or how it functioned. There are many different models we theorized about -- for instance, if you were a consensus created by billions of individuals, rather than a distributed intelligence, then it was thought that a similarly complex diplomatic arrangement would be required as it would take to formalize the capitulation of any other interstellar state."
Bea nodded, slowly. "Well, it shall be much simpler."
"Indeed," Endless Song said. "Now, we must discuss, how many of your worlds are oceanic. How many are arboreal?"
Bea cocked her head. "They...are all?" She looked at Lou, her antennas twitching. Lou felt confused as well. He glanced at Beatrice, then looked back at Endless Song as Beatrice continued: "I have terrafromed each terrestrial world to support as wide a range of bioforms as possible, while also ensuring they are tectonically stable. While their current configurations aren't perfect, I will have to change each of them in a hundred or so million years once the continents shift again, I think I should be able to keep up with that rate of change..."
"Excellent," Endless Song said. "The Upkin Kindred list of reparations will begin at three planetary oceans, roughly on par with the Atlantic and Pacific, and arboreal regions. We have exact kilometer and biodiversity requirements, but-"
"Reparations?" Bea asked while Lou gaped in shock.
"Yes, of course?" Endless Song said, her voice growing slightly stern as she continued. "These peace talks did not begin with your marriage. They began with your
surrender
, Beatrice Benoit. And the Upkin Kindred want what they are owed -- in the only thing that has any value: In land, sea and air."
***
"Of all the blaggardly, ungentlemanly, unfair, unkind, dishonorable..." Lou was caught from his pacing by Bea's wasp body. She took hold of him with her hands -- so dainty and small and warm -- and then levered him down into the bed. She swung her legs wide, her wings buzzing, and then molded her entire black and yellow body onto him. She was currently clothed in a ruffly dress that had been designed to accentuate her curves even more than they already were accented -- and as she was built like an exaggerated hourglass, it was almost more lewd than if she had been naked. Then it got considerably lewder than that as she mashed her full breasts against his face and muffled his words in her sleek, black flesh.
