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Chapter 167: Hmm... I\'m Getting A Bit Political, Aren\'t I?

“Mmmm…!” Liz’s shivering ceased a moment later, as the Paru pulled out of her. She remained tightly pressed against his body, both lay on their sides, still on the bed. “I did… Because I do.”

“What did you mean by that exactly?” The Paru asked as his gaze moved towards the crystal that lay on her cupboard. “How long is -A while-?”

“I… Don’t know. Once we’re back on Wor, I’m not sure how it’ll-”

“Wor? That’s the name of your Planet?”

“Yes,” Liz chuckled. “Thanks to the coloni… Never mind, that has nothing to do with this.”

“Colonizers? Where from?”

“That’s…” Liz squirmed around, pushing against him gently. “Not very relevant to what we were talking about just before.”

“I am interested though… About the place you’re from.”

Liz stared at his face for a moment, pressed her lips together, and looked away. She lay on her back, directing her gaze towards the ceiling.

“It’s nothing special. We were colonized by a much more advanced civilization. To them, we were barbarians… If not animals. Well, I wouldn’t go that far… But some from that civilization do. Anyways, all in all, they helped us with a lot of stuff. They took away the names of our Planet and our civilization, gave us new ones… It happened way before I was born though. Hmm… I’m getting a bit political, aren’t I?”

“It’s fine.” The Paru whispered as he stroked her toned stomach. “Tell me more about it.”

How could he not be interested? It was the place they were going to travel towards after a short stop on Tyl after all.

“Well…” Liz turned towards him for a moment, looked away, then got on her side, facing away from him. “Um… What is there to tell? They helped us with a ton of things. Taught us a lot. We’re doing better since, I suppose. At least, that’s what I’m told. Our infrastructure is severely lacking, lagging behind… Since we have to compete with them on… More advanced things, you know? Our Civilization didn’t have the time to progress at our own speed. Certain fields moved up at exponential rates, while others were completely ignored, lacking to this day. But that’s how competition works, I suppose.”

The Paru scooted closer, and started stroking her naked back with his index finger.

“Are those colonizers the reason why you couldn’t… Buy a Tsero Crystal? The reason why you’re all here?”

“It’s… Complicated.” Liz sighed. “We all have different thoughts and answers on it. You would probably get a more cohesive answer from Raya.”

The Paru got closer and deposited a kiss on her shoulder.

“I’m asking you.” He whispered. “I want to hear what you think.”

Liz turned around for a moment, looking at him as she blushed, turned away, then finally turned back towards him.

“I called them colonizers but that’s not really what they are… These days. The Syndicate. The Intergalactic Federation. The Transgalactic Alliance. The Celestial Union Of The Living. They have dozens of names, some more ominous than others. Well… They… We are a part of. If that makes sense?”

“So the Worka are part of this Intergalactic Federation.”

“Right.” Liz nodded as she sighed. “There’s… People who deal with the stuff that happens within it. Conflicts, that type of thing…”

“So you have allies?”

“Yes, well… Used to. Tsero Crystals are… Usually illegal to buy or sell. The Syndicate provides Tsero Crystals to the Civilizations part of the Federation… God knows how. Some think that the Syndicate have found a way of making them in labs, but there’s no real proof on that.”

‘Diamonds can be made in labs but… Making something like a Tsero Crystal…?’

The Paru remained silent for a moment, before asking,

“Usually illegal? So there’s some kind of black market for them?”

“Yes, there is. And… The Civilization that’s the nexus point of the intergalactic black market, who’s also part of the Federation, has sworn to fuck us over this. What happened to the Tsero Crystal that our civilization used to have… Nobody knows. The Syndicate refuses to replace it, seemingly suggesting that we’re ‘hiding’ ours.”

“Hm… So with this mission, you’re going against the Syndicate, in a way.”

“Yes. That’s part of the reason why only about a hundred of us came here… Other than the fact that it’s a suicidal mission. Well, without you, that is…” Liz cleared her throat. “Our relationship with the Syndicate is very profitable, at times. Those who hold most of the power would rather die than stain their relationship with the Syndicate… Well, they would rather let the common people die.”

“Of course…” The Paru whispered. “Only the poor would really get fucked.”

“Yes. Those with power might see their numbers decrease slightly. Perhaps, the profit margins not being as big. But that’s the worst that would happen to them.”

“Hm… What about the black market?”

“They’re assholes.” Liz sighed. “Since it’s the black market, there’s no real price to be set. The price depends on how much you need the thing. And we need the Tsero Crystal like nothing else. We’ve tried bringing in third parties, but all buying and selling of Tsero Crystals was stopped. Since we’re in a crisis, the black market has grown a conscience. They refuse to sell them to anyone who isn’t a representative of the Worka.”

“But that’s just an excuse to fuck you over the price.”

“Right… Yeah, that’s what it is.”

“What’s the price they were asking for?”

“Too many things to tell or remember, honestly. Among those things was a yearly payment based on a percentage of our GDP.”

“Since that GDP wouldn’t have been produced without them… Without their Tsero Crystal.”

“Yes… Exactly.” Liz muttered. “The Syndicate is probably aware of this but feigns ignorance. Being the center of an economy as big as the black market earns you points… Despite all of it being illegal. The main issue being that they’re much, much richer and more prominent than we are. We’re a pretty backwater place, all things considered. They’re much bigger, and we’re much smaller. So legality kind of comes second…”

“Big fucks small, huh?”

“Big fucks small.” Liz repeated with a chuckle. “The black market always gives rise to some bad and fucked up shit that the Syndicate has the pleasure of dealing with… Further proof of why we need the Syndicate and the Federation… You know?”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“Hm…” Liz scratched her head. “Sorry, I must be boring you. I’m not even sure why I’m talking about these things. They don’t really have anything to do with you.”

“Of course, it does.”

“Huh…? How?”

“I helped with solving the issue, so learning more about the issue is part of my business.”

“Y-Yeah… I guess…” Liz whispered as she looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed.

For some reason, she had expected some kind of romantic ‘Your business is my business’ answer.

‘Getting a Tsero Crystal the way we have means that the black market will lose out on a huge profit, right? It’s unlikely that they won’t give us shit about this… The Worka having traitors amongst them seems to be logical. In the first place, something happened to their Tsero Crystal…’

“Anyways…” Liz sighed and turned to stare at the ceiling. “It’s a shit show. We’ll see how it goes now, I guess…”

“Yeah…” The Paru turned, lying on his back as well. He looked at the ceiling silently for a bit, just like she was. “How is it, Wor?”

“I… Kind of told you.”

“No, I mean… What does it look like? The Planet you’re from?”

Liz’s gaze slowly moved away from the ceiling and towards his face.

She blinked twice, and her gaze moved back to the ceiling.

“It’s…”

Strangely enough, Liz had trouble describing it.

It was the place she was from, yet she didn’t really know what to say.

Her first instinct had been to say -It’s pretty normal- but she managed to keep herself from saying that.

Her inability to describe Wor without overthinking the issue probably also stemmed from the fact that she was talking to the Paru.

Through their conversations, it was obvious that they could easily converse, even when talking about concepts like the GDP, despite there not being a reason why a random alien should know about that… But this was a place she was supposed to describe. The place she was from…

“It’s… A hot place.” Liz nodded. “A very very hot place.”

“Yeah?”

“Hm. It’s so hot that, oftentimes, the earth will dry up and crack. It’ll have cracks everywhere. All over the surface. Our sun is merciless, cracking our earth like that… The ground would be a of a deep orange, sometimes red… Cracked…” Liz whispered, her gaze stuck to the ceiling. “I used to love watching that kind of scenery. Cracked earth as far as I could see…”

The Paru passed his arm below Liz, and she rested the back of her head on his shoulder.

“I would love to see that.” He whispered.

Liz’s gaze moved towards him.

She stared at his face for a moment, before moving closer.

“You will.” She whispered, before kissing him