As Mia predicted, I'm eventually allowed to start doing more jobs in different places.
They're still low-security, but I've gotten to start working in areas where they're doing other things than just the cleaning that I've done before.
One of the areas that I've started working is what seems to be a factory or something similar.
The first day that I start there is the same day I get an assignment to work there, so I have no idea what I'll find. They just give me some vague orders and point me at the building. So, I head there, but when I enter the door I stop dead in my tracks, because...
It doesn't look like a factory on Earth.
The entire place is a mess of machines, wires, and tubes that connect to various boxes and cylinders, which connect to more tubes and pipes and other things.
It looks like someone just...tore up a factory and threw all the pieces around, and now it's trying to mimic itself. Everything looks so...chaotic. It's all just strewn about in no real pattern, like the person who did it had no plan or idea of how to put the pieces together. But the way the parts connect, and the layout of the place, are so...deliberate.
The whole area hums with life and activity.
I'd expect it to be full of human workers, given the realities I'm familiar with related to factory working on Earth but...
Surprisingly it's all aliens. Perhaps because of the sheer chaos of what the factory is, or perhaps there's some physical requirements?
I don't know. But when I'm sent in to sweep up debris, I don't see other humans. Just alien after alien, working the machines and making them function. They're working with an energy and a purpose that is unlike any factory worker I'd ever seen on Earth.
It's like...
I don't know. It's just...so much more intense than anything I'm familiar with.
Maybe that's why there's no humans. The intensity and speed of their movements are probably hard for humans to do.
And I can't figure out what they're making.
The factory is producing something. But it's not something I can understand or recognize.
I watch them as subtly as I can while I work - though they're so focused I feel as if I can probably just stand directly behind them and not be noticed - but at no point in the assembly or manufacturing process can I tell what it is they're making.
Whatever it is, the design, at least, is so alien I can't discern anything about it. All I can tell is that the workers seem to be focused on something in particular, something specific.
But what?
It's a mystery, and one I don't get to solve. After only a week, my duty in the factory is done.
My duties have been shifting from one place to the next. Not all the places I go are particularly special or notable. Some of the buildings are clearly residential or dormitory, or they're recreational areas.
I'm not particularly interested in them.
I'm not always stationed places at all. If I don't have a set duty, I can just go through those unimportant, general use buildings at my leisure to clean. It's the higher security places that I get assigned specifically.
I think.
I don't know why sometimes they seem to be recreational or dormitory locations, but. It's my best understanding of it.
I've been told by Mia that I'll be assigned another place soon - she's still my translator when it comes to them most of the time, because I still can't say a word.
I wish I could say I could understand them, at least, but even though I'm beginning to understand some of the structure of their speech - or rather, it's better to say I'm beginning to notice that there is structure at all - I don't understand the meaning of anything.
Of course.
Even when I'm fully immersed, my learning is still so slow.
"Sarah~"
Mia waves to me, a broad smile on her lips.
She looks excited, her cheeks are flushed and her eyes bright.
Eric and Hestia are standing next to her.
I haven't really gotten a chance to speak to Eric since we last talked, and Hestia is her usual self. So much so that she quickly sprints over, crossing the distance between us, and wraps her arms around my arm.
Mia plants her hands on her hips and smiles, faux-stern. "Wow, you have no more use for me, huh?" She pouts at Hestia.
Hestia makes a quiet, embarrassed noise, but she just holds my arm tighter and doesn't respond.
I smile softly and pat her head. "Mia's only joking."
Eric sighs, looking at Mia with a slight glare.
Mia laughs, waving a dismissive hand. "Sorry, sorry~!"
Hestia's grip loosens slightly.
I gently pry her fingers from my arm, then reach out to take her hand, giving it a small squeeze. "Come on. Let's join up with our friends." I offer her a small, warm smile.
Her gaze flickers between my face and Mia's. Then her cheeks flush slightly and she nods, walking toward Mia.
Mia's smile widens and she holds out her hand, taking Hestia's free hand and holding it gently.
"Well, since I got you all together so easily, come on." Mia waves toward herself. "Let's go somewhere a little less public."
I glance at Eric. "...You're in on this?"
He shrugs. "Got no idea what she's talking about. Actually I just came across her and Hestia a little before we found you." His eyes flick to Hestia. "What are you two doing?"
Hestia doesn't respond.
"Shh, shh~!" Mia holds a finger up to her mouth. "Come on. It's more fun when it's a surprise, right?"
"I don't like surprises." Eric says.
"Yeah." I agree with him. At least...I don't like them on this planet. Not often.
But with Mia, maybe it's going to be fine.
Maybe.
"You two are so boring~" She grins. "Just come with me."
She marches with confidence, undeterred by our doubt, weaving through various buildings, moving us further and further from the main path. The other buildings are getting sparser. We're getting close to the wall. It's clear that there isn't much here, and that not a lot of people would come here for a good reason. It's far enough from all the places anyone would want to be.
It's a good place to trade information where no one will hear...
But it is pretty conspicuous, too.
We walk past a few of the last straggling buildings before we come to an alcove in the wall. It's a bit hidden from the main road, just around the side of one of the buildings.
It looks like it might be an old, abandoned building. Probably a storehouse or something, because the inside is open. But it looks...forgotten.
"Come on~!"
Mia grins, tugging Hestia along.
She goes without resistance.
Eric and I share another glance. "...This seems a bit strange, don't you think?"
"Yeah." His voice is low. "...But Mia usually has some reason for what she does..."
"I can hear you two. Just get in here!"
We hesitate another few seconds.
Finally, I shrug, sighing, and enter.
It's dark inside. There's no lights.
Eric follows me in. "What is this, Mia? What are you up to?"
"Come on, sit down." Mia sits, and pulls Hestia down with her. "Eric, Sarah. You, too."
"Mia..." Eric mutters.
"Shush. Sit down."
I fumble through the relative darkness, led by Hestia's hand - who seems as confident as Mia about this - before I finally flop down on some kind of cushion on the ground.
"Mia..." Eric says it again, right next to me. It's exasperated this time.
A light flickers to life - a little flare of flame that seems to dance on its own, illuminating Mia's face and the small area around us. There's a soft, playful grin on Mia's lips as she sets the light on top of a little metal box. "There. You guys were taking forever."
"Mia...what is this?"
"What's it look like? We're going to have a picnic." Mia says it as though it's obvious, her hands on her hips. "Obviously."