XX Intro XX

XX Intro XX

"If you have a choice of two things and can't decide, take both." -Gregory Corso

XX

Ten years later Okeena wasn’t so small anymore, nor did she remember much before Impact. Actually, she just kind of stopped caring. Her parents’ had never showed up after she left, and so she assumed they were dead. Everyone was dying back then. They were no different. Anyway, her parents’ disappearance had been shoved into the back of her head ages ago.

Now all she thought about was the survival of her. Kahn could take care of himself out here, so Okeena didn’t need to worry about him. She, on the other hand, wasn’t all that skilled in staying alive. In ten years Okeena had been closer to “the light” than anyone she knew who was still…you know, alive and all. Not like she hadn’t known her fair share of Halfers since she came up, but of the live creatures, she’d been in more than her fair share of scrapes.

(Over seventy times, she would guesstimate).

Ten years was a long time nowadays, too. Okeena had remained about the same as a tadpole remains a tadpole all that time. No, she’d grown up and changed drastically, evolving when necessary, and always changing faces. Sure, she met up with Kahn every few months or so to make sure each sibling was still alive (they were all premeditated places), but other than her brother and the people she worked for, they were the only ones who knew exactly what she looked like.

Generally, Okeena tried to keep from remaining the same for longer than a month. Too bad the ones who play the best always get burned the most.

Still, some things stayed the same. Okeena’s glossy black curls still framed her face, though lack of sunlight had paled her dark skin considerably (proof that maybe it was possible that humanity could die without the sun but nobody liked to think about that upcoming disaster).

Okeena was closer to ceilings now more than floors (generally) and she’d developed the necessary feminine body to produce later in life. Unfortunately, the lack of human men out here kept her the pure virgin…well, human-wise. On more than one occasion she’d been caught up in the moment with a male Sjerabian or Havanu—both were close enough to the human race to work in the relationship field, but not close enough to actually produce anything from it.

Which was a heaven sent miracle in Okeena’s point of view. She didn’t want to take care of any little aliens (oh yes, she was known for saying that “taboo” word) while she worked out here.

Oh! Instead of relying on her mami and papi now, Okeena was now an independent young lady. She worked with the HEA (Havanu Enforcement Administration) as a sort of…spy? Okeena didn’t really know what her title was. She just did what was asked of her and got paid tons for doing it. Most of the time her work wasn’t pretty, and it was partly why she’d faced death so many times, but the pay was worth it.

After completing a job, Okeena usually had at least enough money to spend an entire week in Varja, which she did as much as possible. Gambling was her official sport; plus it was her territory. It was the only place that reminded her of vague memories of before Impact (First it was B.C. and A.D.; now it was B.I. and A.I.).

Sometimes Okeena’s work kept her away from Varja for weeks, perhaps months on end though. It was hard to determine time anymore, since she didn’t really keep track of the human calendar (pointless considering Earth was just a memory and supposedly didn’t exist anymore), but generally, someone who did care would inform her of the time since Impact, and she’d get it from there.

Actually, the HEA rather disliked when she knew how long she’d been gone. Okeena’s work tended to get worse and malignant if she knew she was due for a break.

The HEA…all that it can be described as would be like a law force. HEA officers spent their time out here searching for criminals, whether they were high-rollers or low-rollers. Okeena, to them, was the sniffer for those criminals. She blindly stumbled around out here until she tripped over some criminal and arrested them.

If anything was different about being out here than on earth, it was definitely the punishment system. Once you had a warrant on you, you had to hide really well for the rest of your life, or you died. No other choices than those two. Hide or die; the word “innocence” didn’t exist out here. Life was worthless unless you were generally productive, and nothing else.

Who came up with any other idea about that anyway? Oh, humans? Well, they’d been the first race as far as Okeena knew that were systematically massacred for believing such garbage. Therefore, Okeena believed the Havanu laws. She accepted them, and that was why she was still alive unlike so many other of her kind; she stayed in line.

Well, as far as they knew.

When they could keep track of her.