Boruk is the greatest cultural melting pot federated under the Galactic Assembly. When the first Coress had broken-atmosphere two millennia prior, they had found, to their disappointment, no image life. From light years out they had scanned the atmosphere and found the rich O2 of Carbon-based life, as well as synthetic aerosolized compounds which testified to the existence of Sapient technology.
When they arrived, however, they only found plants, rodents, and some extremely unique geo-chemistry off-gassing fairly unusual sulfur-fluorine-carbon compounds. However, instead of moving on, they chose to make the best of it, and decided to colonize the planet.
The rest is history…
One thousand, eight hundred and sixty-four years later the Coress have accomplished the impossible feat of building a bustling trade hub, all the while retaining all of the original biosphere. Today its cities sit, like multifaceted diamonds amidst an emerald canopy, each one packed with races from the furthest reaches of the Galactic assembly. The whole planet is an anthropologist’s dream. The near-300 dominant cultures interact in novel was seen nowhere else in the universe.
The Volatus drifted inches from the ground. Normally he would “walk”, but these humans had [idiom equates to “inhumanly”] long legs. His friend had wanted to show his family the planetary Capital, especially the iconic Central Mall.
The biologist walked slightly ahead, arm hanging, fingers wrapped gently around his daughters tiny hand. Each pace of his heavy treat left a dull thump, and kicked up a small cloud of dust from the gravel.
The volatus loved humans. They were fascinating, even before one gets of the culture shock, but once he got over the shock he found that they could be fast friends, if they chose. As this one had.
The little human tugged her fathers arm.
“M’ tired”
The volatus watched as his friend glanced down at his daughter, felt the brief hum of neurons firing, perhaps estimating the length of the day, and then the human bent down, and hoisted the girl to his shoulders. She immediately used her vantage point to scan her surroundings. Typical human.
Her eyes suddenly locked on the volatus, and he froze, conflicted, unsure if this little human was cute, or terrifying, She pointed at him.
“Uncle”
The biologist stopped, turned, and grinned sheepishly.
“Too fast?”
The volatus nodded, an imitation of human body language.
“Too fast.”
The human motioned him to the center of the group, and he obligingly drifted to the front, now leading the way, which was alright. The human couple and their child had proven their loyalty. Well, the two adults had. The child had tried to bite him, which, given their classification as a venomous species, was a problem.
A solved problem. The biologist had promptly contacted a friend, and developed a solution of bacteriophages to counter his family’s microbiome, all package neatly into an auto-injector pen, of course.
Now, if he were ever bitten by one of the human children from this family he would simply inject the engineered virus, and the two would neutralise.
Good times.
The Volatus came back to the present. The massive original entrance rose in front of them, the first entrance, curving, organic.
The group passed into the interior.