Part 1** : All Hands on Deck**

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The moment that Toby Waugh peeked out from behind the curtain, he would never be able to forget the view. For miles he saw nothing but stalls, party favors and the enormous aliens who enjoyed them. He couldn't believe his luck. His band, a two-piece group named Sixth Eye, had gone from jamming in a living room to a featured act in one of the most highly broadcasted celebrations on Tebeish. All in little more than six Earth months.

The venue was the Hands of Beish, a festival dedicated to the mixed species expedition that colonized the small planet twenty-eight years prior. Images of squirrel-like Kiori and draconic Arkatians working and fighting together could be seen in nearly every corner of the festival grounds. The audience was just as hard to miss. Before the stage lay a chattering ocean of fur and scales, albeit with the occasional tuft of feathers sprinkled in. Someone in the front row managed to catch a glimpse of Toby's bright ginger mane and cheered, pointing straight at him. Toby considered that his cue to stop being nosy and kept his head backstage.

“Fuck, that's a lot of people." He said to himself.

“Yeah." Another voice hummed in agreement.

Toby knew it well. That voice had a habit of accidentally sneaking up on him at times like this. Looming only a few feet behind him and shivering in terror was his only bandmate, a Ralai drummer by the name of Mae'eliis Delphin. Forming a band with a sixty-foot snow leopard wasn't quite how Toby envisioned his mid-twenties, but his recent circumstances warmed him to the idea very quickly. Six months ago, Toby and many others had been laid off by Tebeish's human construction wing. Losing a job he'd had since he left Earth five years ago was devastating, but Toby didn't stay jobless for very long. Mae put up extranet ads for a band audition around the same time, and he couldn't say no to something that said, 'All species welcome!' in bright red letters.

Toby had some unfavorable ideas about how his first real conversation with an alien would go. Condescension would be a given. There'd be a few cracks about his height, maybe some grabbing if he was unlucky. Or perhaps they would have laughed him out of the room and left it at that. Mae, however, was just about the opposite of everything he expected. She was soft-spoken, never made any unwanted comments or advances, and got nervous over just about anything. But she liked him, and he liked her. That meant he wouldn't hang her out to dry when her nerves had her trembling.

“Mae? What's wrong?"

Mae sat on the stage behind him, legs crossed. Everything from her ears to her lips screamed that she'd rather be anywhere else.

“I'm fine, Toby. It's just-" She paused. “We've never done anything this big before."

Toby grimaced. “You're telling me. What are there, a thousand people in that crowd?"

“And then there's the live broadcast." She said, grim as can be.

She began to panic. Her eyes darted towards the grassy ground behind the stage, begging for an exit. “I can't do this. I really can't do this! Is it too late to-"

_“_Mae, please!" He shouted above her.

Even he winced at how loud he was, but he couldn't let her continue that train of thought. After a deep breath, he tried another approach. He hoped that this one wouldn't backfire too. “Look at it like this. Those people, all of 'em. They're here to see us. Us!"

Mae cocked her head back in confusion. “But aren't they here for the festival?"

Toby felt a little relieved by that response. Confusion was a step above panic, at least. “Details, details. Point is: The only reason those people are here, hell, the only reason why we're here is because we did our best! That's not gonna change today."

Mae rubbed the back of her neck, her massive tail swaying to and fro behind her. “Well…"

Toby met her eyes, making sure that he was as reassuring as possible. “You're gonna be alright, you always are. You've just gotta get out there and do what you always do. Trust me." He said with a warm smile.

Mae didn't smile back, but the trembling had petered out. He didn't know if she would last the whole show, but he was always happy to calm his friend down, even the tiniest bit. Toby made his way to the hand that rested on the ground and pat her thumb, his non-verbal way of asking for a lift.

Mae turned her palm up to support him. True to the ralai subspecies she belonged to, the forepaw was so oversized that it likely had room for three of him. Toby settled himself into the cushy black paw pad as the curtain unfurled. Her immense fingers were as tall as he was and thicker than tree stumps, but he never felt unsafe in her grasp. Mae began to walk with him, keeping him fully enclosed in her digits like she was taught. And from there, it wasn't long before she gently dropped him off on a table next to her drum kit.

Toby quickly surveyed the audience. Some of them cheered. A few of them jeered. Two adolescents in the second row began to crack up. A typical gig for Sixth Eye. How quickly he became used to playing to building sized people was surreal, even to him.

Toby coddled his instrument of choice, a hefty six string bass guitar, and shuffled into position over the pedal board. He took extra care when he navigated the family of wires that slithered between his amplifier and the stage's monstrous speakers. Connecting the hideously mismatched equipment without so much as a static shock was a feat he thanked the road crew for every chance he got. With a whir, the two screens that sandwiched the open stage came to life. The one on his right boasted a live feed of his every move, zoomed in until he matched Mae in size. Now that they could see him, Toby smiled and waved for the camera. He was ready.

--

Mae was as prepared as she could reasonably be. Her ear protectors were in. Her kit was fully optimized and ready for a beating. It was just a matter of gathering the wherewithal to hit those drums. Mae took a moment to look back at her smiling, waving bandmate. How someone that small stayed so calm baffled her, but she hoped that she could borrow some of that energy tonight.

She gripped her drumsticks as tightly as she could. They were the size of Terran street lamps, according to Toby, but her hands dwarfed them all the same. Sixth Eye's handlers had prepared a speech for her, but Mae didn't bother with it. Wasting more of the audience's time wasn't an option she could afford herself. In turn, Mae had only one thing to say as she leaned into her microphone.

“One! Two! Three! Four!"

The moment she threw herself into the opening notes of '21/16', Mae's worries evaporated on the spot. In an instant, she wasn't timid little Mae anymore. She was Mae'eliis Delphin: a vicious drummer and Sixth Eye's confident, charismatic front woman. Mae laid down a jagged beat with eleven short, chattering notes. Mae knew it as the Ra'hamiir Line, a very common Ra'lai drum pattern. To Toby, it was the very rare 11/8 time signature.

Mae filled the sixth and tenth notes by scraping the back of her claws across one of the black drum heads, creating a sound somewhere between a snare and a record scratch. Toby answered the low end of her drums with a fuzzy, arpeggiated bassline. Glittering notes from his high C string filled the air. Having warmed the crowd up, Mae switched to a stomping four note beat. The elusive Quadrant Spread, or 4/4 in human terms. Toby released his fuzz pedal and slipped into an oscillating groove. He slid between the low and mid ranges of his bass, providing a bone shaking accompaniment to Mae's jaunty lead vocal.

You there in the field corps

This ain't what you trained for

Dropships on your front door and your town in flames

Rynar troops have landed

Your purview's been expanded

Hope that you can stand it, cause they're here in spades

Homefront strength is shaking

A Planet for the taking

Now the news is breaking that the friendlies came

Time to meet the saviors

Be on your best behavior

They might be your neighbors once the road's been paved

Just try to stay sane…

Toby cued the chorus with a few fuzzy, high notes that recalled the intro. Mae and Toby took a short detour into the Hexad Spread, or 6/4: a propulsive six beat pattern that was equally rare for both parties.

Cause it'll be a brand new planet!

Brand new planet!

Mae switched the song back to 4/4. Her kick drum stole the first three notes, Toby accented the fourth with a deep bass lick.

It'll be tough, man, take it from me.

Just roll with the punches!

--

Toby had some time to think while he autopiloted the second verse. Sixth Eye had everybody moving. He could even make out the two heckling teens dancing along with the others. Mae was having the time of her life. She'd launched into the second verse with a palpable energy, smiling the kind of broad, toothy grin that he never saw from her offstage.

The gulf between the Mae he befriended and the Mae he performed with was a curious thing. He'd known her for half a year and never saw those two worlds intersect. Perhaps he didn't truly know her at all. The thought began to make his heart pang, so he did his best to clear his head and move on. Nobody paid bass players to think, after all. In any case, one thing was very clear.

It was gonna be a long night.

--

The full set barely lasted thirty UTO standard minutes, just enough time for dusk to fall over the Hands of Beish. Even with the festivities still going strong, Mae and Toby decided to head back to their vehicle. The two of them had long since had their fill of the place. It was a long walk back, but the cooling air, warm festival lights and the distant sunset made the journey a pleasant one. The stage was currently occupied by Sixth Eye's long-suffering road crew, but any noise they made had long since faded into the hustle and bustle of the festival-goers.

Mae rode a sizeable adrenaline rush, so much so that she could even hold Toby without any unpleasant thoughts entering her mind. She hadn't said anything since the end of the show, but the little man in her hand never stayed quiet for very long.

“See, what did I tell you? You absolutely smashed it!"

Mae's ear twitched in confusion. “Smashed what?"

Toby shook his head and chuckled. She could faintly feel the vibrations in his chest through her palm. “Just another one of my little English phrases for you. It means 'you did well', basically."

Mae let out an amused huff. Toby had been trying to get her to use his idioms ever since they started speaking without translators. She figured he just wanted a cheap laugh from hearing her attempt phrases like 'Bob's your uncle', so she rarely obliged him. “I do hope you don't expect me start saying this too."

Toby didn't let up. “Why not? It's not gonna kill you or anything."

Normally Mae would have politely declined and left it there, but not today. This was a rare moment of calm for her, and a calm Mae was a playful Mae.

“Well don't get me wrong, but if I even said the word 'smash' around a human they would probably scream. Either that or have a heart attack. Maybe both?" Mae laughed softly, but Toby only got more indignant.

“Please. I wouldn't!"

She brought Toby in closer, keeping him snugly nested below her diaphragm. “Well, not everyone can be a big brave soldier like you, Toby."

He grumbled and turned his head down. Mae loved every second it. He was adorable when he got flustered. “Aww, don't get all pouty. I can do without one little phrase, thank you."

“Yeah, OK, whatever. We got way off track." Toby cleared his throat. “Whether or not you 'smashed it', you did great tonight, Mae."

Despite his intentions, that comment shot straight through Mae's good mood. The previous cocktail of stage fright and imposter syndrome returned in full force. “I almost ran off because of my nerves." She said, ears folded atop her head.

“But you didn't. You pushed through them and put on a great fucking show."

He leaned back into her chest, his body resting atop a particularly thick patch of fur. She could feel him studying her, but she didn't crane her head down just yet. “Look. I'm not telling you to just 'get over it.' That never helped anyone. But please..."

He pulled down on the fabric of her top with enough force to get her attention. She looked down to see him smiling up at her, little brown eyes wide and reassuring. “...be proud of yourself for once, OK?"

Mae didn't know how to respond. He was right. She was never proud of herself, but saying, 'Thanks, I will' wouldn't change that. As much as Mae wanted to think that over, she wouldn't get the chance just yet. She looked up from her palm to find their tour transport a hair's breadth from her face. Any closer and she might have bumped into it.

“Oh! We're here!" She yipped excitedly.

Perhaps a little too excitedly, considering what she was returning to. The vehicle was a sorry sight. Having a human in the band apparently gave Sixth Eye's handlers the green light to go as small (and cheap) as possible, and it showed. Sixth Eye were saddled with an undersized, pitiful looking thing that visibly sagged when it was fully encumbered with their equipment. The vehicle's unfortunate off-white finish didn't help matters either.

Quality of their transport aside, Mae was happy. No pedestrians were around. Their road crew wouldn't catch up for a good ten minutes at least. The two of them were finally alone. Mae felt some excitement well up in her. She finally had another chance to see if she could do this with him.

“Toby? Would you…" She hung on the last word, going quiet shortly thereafter.

Toby waited patiently for her to finish, yet nothing came out. “Would you like to sit with me while I hug you and pet you?" was what she wanted to say. Mae was very enamored with physical affection, especially for a ra'lai. Many a time she wanted to do nothing more than shower her little friend with it. Yet every time she wanted to, it never came to pass. The words got caught in her throat. Her hands stayed well out of his reach. Her tail tensed up as a familiar dread began to wash over her. She hit it again.

The wall.

She first hit it when she was young. The wall always came up at times like this, freshly painted with new doubts and self-defeating thoughts. She tried to break through it, she always did, but it stayed firmly wedged between herself and Toby. Once again, the little human was stuck languishing in her hand, forever bewildered. The wall would not break tonight.

“Would you like to go in?" Was what she ended up saying.

She tried not to show it, but Mae screamed at herself inside her head. She let it win again. It always won, no matter what. If she telegraphed any of her frustration then Toby must not have picked up on it. He simply said yes in the flattest tone imaginable. Mae tried her best to shake off the unpleasant thoughts and threw the back door open, exposing the vehicle's cramped interior to the elements.

A single person bed lay behind the driver's seat, and two wooden cabinets for the humans were firmly wedged onto adjacent shelves. From wall to wall, there was barely enough horizontal real estate for her tail. It was a wonder that the mech and drum kit could fit inside of it at all, even with the latter fully disassembled. Mae gingerly opened the cabinet on her left and rested her hand on the shelf. In short order, Toby hopped onto the small mattress that lounged next to its wooden door. Now that her bandmate was taken care of, Mae unceremoniously collapsed onto her bed. The stiff mattress made her groan in discomfort. Toby sat up to study her.

“Something wrong with the bed?"

She shook her head. A lot of things were wrong with the bed, but it wasn't her accommodations that she was concerned about. Sleeping in a wooden box was not her idea of life on the road.

“Yours is so much worse." She said, voice tinged with pity. “I don't know how you can stand sleeping in that thing."

Toby turned away from her and shrugged. She could have sworn she saw him frown for a split second.

“Don't worry about it. It's private, at least." He knocked on the cabinet door twice to drive the point home.

Mae sighed and pulled herself under the covers, long past the point of caring about sleeping in her clothes. “If you say so."

The two of them said their farewells and Toby slammed his door shut behind him. The ensuing echo made her fur stand on end. It wasn't fair. She knew that Toby was as unhappy with the cabinets as she was. But if he raised no complaints, then all she could do was take his advice and try not to worry about it. She had her own problems. Narrowly avoiding a pre-show panic attack was a massive cause for alarm. If their handlers could be taken at their word, then the crowds would only get bigger from here on out. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she couldn't find a way to deal with her nerves.

Then it hit her. This was what she wanted in the first place. Sixth Eye let her leave the creatively stifling world of session work. She could see new places, meet new people, and spread her ideas. It was every ra'lai's dream. Perhaps things would improve once she and Toby learned how to power through the strange life ahead of them. In the end, Mae only had her hopes.

And she could only hope destiny would be kind.