The ball was launched on our opponent’s side of the court, and right away they started with a feinting strategy, bouncing the ball back and forth between each other. You could only pass the ball five times until you had to volley it to the other side, but this pair seemed to perfect their high passes so they could maximize distance between them before they had to volley it back. They faked us out and volleyed it back on the third pass, spiking it right between us.

  But Eve was a pro on the hover-discs. She flipped around easily and caught the ball, then passed it high up to me. I rose up to catch it, then passed it back down to Eve while I continued to rise. Eve made like she was passing the ball high to me once more, but I didn’t touch the ball at all, so when it dropped back down to her, she spiked it forward so it slammed down in our opponent's court, earning our first point.

  The audience all cheered at our great fake-out, and from there we continued using tricky tactics. Back and forth we went, sending and catching volleys more than any match before; our opponent’s defense was superb, and despite changing up our moves constantly, they were quick on their hover-discs and able to respond accordingly.

  They scored a couple times in a row on us, but we pulled it back easily with some low shots down straight to their court. We learned a lot from playing such skilled opponents, so the longer the match went on, the better we seemed to play.

  Despite all we learned, they got their tenth point first, winning the first game from us even though we’d been all tied up. The next game started, and the ball came to our side, and I decided to play a risky gambit and spike the ball immediately towards them without passing at all, and it took them off guard so quickly it got us the first point within seconds of the round starting.

  Eve and I quickly realized these people were so skilled with their feints and tricks, it was actually better to just spike the ball immediately without giving them any time to set up a defense. Eve had insane raw power, but even my spikes were stronger than most other people we played against—stronger than our current opponents. We went all-out aggressive on the second match and won it rather easily.

  The third match started, and our opponents adapted accordingly. They were moving faster and didn’t take the time to set up their feints so much, but our reflexes were clearly better, so they couldn’t disrupt our defense the way we could against them. After a furious round of fast volleys and spikes, we ended up victorious once again.

  We only needed to win one more match and we’d take the whole tournament, and I could see our opponents were already wearing down. It seemed like my human stamina really was coming in clutch. They got the ball first and reverted to their tricky tactics—going with what worked before. But we were wise to their games and could anticipate a feint, it was just a matter of breaking past their defenses now. We continued pressing low without much passing, sending out strong spikes in response to any of their volleys. In no time at all I could see we’d totally broken their defenses down, and we ended up sweeping through most of the last match.

  “And we have our daily hoverball champions, Adam and Eve!” One of the golden androids announced.

  Our team rushed to the courts as we lowered down on our hover-discs, cheering and jumping around us. The golden android brought us a little trophy, a simple black stand with a golden orb floating in the middle, it had our names already engraved on it.

  Our opponents walked to our side of the court, and right away they offered us big smiles as the man presented his hand to me, “Amazing match, I’ve never seen anyone with that kind of power move that fast. Are you two part of a league back home?” He asked.

  Eve and I exchanged a look, and I just chuckled, “No, uh, this was actually our first time playing.”

  The female’s eyes grew wide, “You’re kidding, you’re so good though!”

  “They’re naturals.” Zyno offered cheerfully.

  Lobae nodded along, “I was in a league back in school, and even after years of playing I never moved like them.”

  The red alien laughed and shook his head, “We’ll I’ve got to hear more of this story.” He gestured to himself and his partner, “I’m Glemsh, this is my wife Tyarm. Why don’t the two of us meet up for lunch soon?”

  Eve produced her communicator and exchanged info with Tyarm.

  “Sure, sounds great.” I waved around to the courts around us, “So they have these tournaments every day?”

  Tyarm nodded, “Yeah, we lost yesterday too unfortunately, back in the semi-finals.” She smirked, “You probably could’ve won yesterday as well honestly.”

  “It was fun and all, but this is our first time in the Holistia Nebula, so we want to try out a little bit of everything.” I explained.

  Eve wrapped her arms around my waist, “We’re on a company trip, but we’re also getting the standard Glorva Corp honeymoon treatment.”

  Tyarm’s eyes lit up, “Wow, that’s so wonderful! You two are so cute together.” She turned and swatted her husband with the back of her hand, “Now we definitely have to have lunch with them, get the whole story.”

  Glemsh just chuckled, “Of course dear.”

  We waved goodbye to our new friends and returned our attention to our fake coworkers. I held up the little trophy, “Not bad for our first time, eh?”

  Lobae rolled her eyes, “I don’t know what I’m more jealous of; your skill at hoverball or how much fun the two of you are having on this trip.”

  Kianna laughed at that, “They’re certainly taking advantage of the vacation aspect of things.”

  Eve glared at that, “What else would you have us do? It’s not like there’s any work to be done.”

  Vinnago nodded at that, “She has a point, all we can really do now is enjoy ourselves and wait.” He shrugged, “Speaking of; anyone up for lunch? Might be nice to continue these group outings—no reason to go it all alone.”

  Everyone confirmed they were eager for a meal, and Zyno looked over at Yun, “What do you think? Wanna grab lunch?”

  Yun, who behaved like she was above all the acting before, suddenly seemed like she was finally willing to play her role, “Of course, lunch sounds wonderful.”

  From there we continued to enjoy our day with the fake coworkers, acting as real friends.

  ***

  There was so much to do on Bliss-87 it was almost daunting, even just the options for food were overwhelming; they had specialty restaurants for every race, every system even it seemed. We had a food synthesizer in our room (although it didn’t have any earthling options available, unlike aboard The Radiance), but I could finally tell the difference between the artificial food and authentic meals; the artificial food tasted almost exactly like what it was imitating, but there was just the slightest aftertaste that seemed, well, artificial—almost like a plastic film left it the mouth. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was noticeable, and I understood now why so many people aboard The Radiance would have real meals and snacks shipped in whenever possible; after a while you could get a little sick of that fake flavoring and craved something real. Here on Bliss-87, nearly everything was real and authentic, prepared by the android servers.

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  We met up at some alien BBQ joint, with sweet and spicy meats that reminded me so much of Earth. Blue meats that fell off curly bones, with sauces that tingled my brain with their flavor; I could see why they called these places paradise.

  Eve wiped some sauce off my mouth with her finger and tasted it herself, “Darling, I had no idea how much you enjoyed food.”

  I patted my belly, “It’s cause I’m skinny, right? No one ever thinks the skinny guy eats as much as they do but let me tell you I can put it away with the best of them.” I confirmed.

  For the rest of the day, we ended up touring around with our group, and it was kind of nice hanging out with everyone; I noticed Vinnago and Lobae held hands a couple of times and called each other pet names occasionally—the agents taking their roles seriously. Other than them, no one else really played along; Kianna seemed like she was trying to fulfill her role, but any time she acted like a girlfriend to Densdor he got all flustered, which was honestly quite funny. Zyno and Yun remained as distant as ever, but really most groups have that one odd couple out, so it probably didn’t seem strange for us.

  Although I had to admit, people actually were rather curious and friendly, and we met quite a few people who asked who we were, where we were from, if we’d ever been in the Holistia Nebula before, etcetera. I suppose that made sense considering that Luxury hologram told us to go out and make friends, and while I was sure any old lie would suffice, we met enough people who wanted to engage with us to the point it started making sense we had such a detailed cover story established.

  Although the talk about our company was almost always shelved once Eve brought up we were newlyweds.

  “Oh Xedd, aren’t they darlings?” An older pink slime-woman nearly swooned.

  The blue blubbery man—Xedd nodded along with her, “Yes dear, such a lovely couple.”

  The pink slime-woman—Yitina grabbed Eve’s hand in a few of her slimy tendrils, “You must have brunch with us soon, tell us all about your love story.”

  Eve trilled with delight, always eager to exchange contact info with any new friends we made. Honestly Eve really loved the attention—loved bragging about us and our new marriage, always took the opportunity to have some PDA with me. I didn’t mind it either and since it was part of our cover as newlyweds, I felt like it was the appropriate time to show it off.

  Although sometimes Eve would take it a little too far.

  “Eve—sweetie, that’s your, uh…” I reached down, pulling one of her tentacles out of the front of my pants.

  “Hmm? Oh, sorry darling.” She said sweetly, acting innocent as always.

  As evening rolled around we decided as a group to enjoy dinner and a show, and to tell you I was surprised by what kind of show it turned out to be was quite the understatement.

  Jousting—like mechanical knights and hover-crafts and everything; it was like being at some crazy cyber-punk Medieval Times, they even served us right in the stands and everything.

  Vinnago laughed from the bench above me, “Why do you look so surprised, Adam?”

  I waved out to the crazy spectacle before us, “This, how is it even out here in the fringes of space you have so much like we have back on Earth?”

  Zyno beside me quirked up an eyebrow, “You have speed-lancing back on Earth?”

  I shook my head quickly, “No, we call it jousting, and it’s done on horseback—or was back some hundreds of years ago.”

  “You would take your lances atop an animal?” Yun pressed.

  I waved my hands out quickly to stop them, “No, not me, it was something that happened back in the middle-ages—long, long before my time, like a thousand years ago.” I sighed, realizing a thousand years was nothing to such a long-lived Empire and its people who could nearly live that long with all their advanced science, “Point is, how can something so similar have evolved across the vast reaches of space? Planets and people millions of miles and years from each other, yet we’re all really so similar?”

  No one around me seemed so surprised, “The fact is any race or civilization that evolves to the point they can explore the stars, obviously there will end up being several similarities among them.” Zyno explained.

  “How? Even with stuff like sports and entertainment?”

  “You might not realize it yet, but there’s a proven track-record to a successfully evolved species, and while there can be some differences between cultures and even timelines, to deviate too far from that proven path would lead to any number of detrimental changes that might prevent the people from ever being able to leave their planet.” Kianna explained from beside Eve.

  “Changes that could lead to a technological stagnation, or to complete destruction.” Zyno offered.

  “So what, we’re all just kind of the same?”

  All the aliens in the group looked around at each other—each looking so different and unique, and they all just nodded together in agreement.

  “Adam, there’s a reason sexuality is so free amongst the Empire; if some races seemed less evolved, it would seem inappropriate to engage with someone like that. But since we’re all so similarly advanced, there aren’t any kind of hangups about where someone is from or what their evolutionary line is like.” Kianna gestured around us, “Once you make it to the stars, we realize we’ve all evolved to our peaks, and from there, yeah, we’re all pretty much the same.”

  “Random biological differences notwithstanding, of course, we mean more philosophically.” Vinnago added.

  Could it really be so simple? Follow a long enough timeline and everyone ends up at the same peak?

  “Okay, I get that we end up the same, but how can there really be so many similarities before we ended up evolved in space? How can there be things like jousting or speed-lancing on different planets?” I pressed.

  “You know your history on ancient Rome, right?” Zyno asked, and I nodded, “Do you know how many thousands of ancient Romes there were across the galaxies? Primitive civilizations with technological advancements that wouldn’t make sense for several thousand years, wildly advanced philosophies that are quoted in modern times, only to be crushed under their own might—each with mysterious stories of destruction?”

  “On my home planet ours was called ancient Chime, lasted over 2,000 years before it was wiped out by natural disaster.” Lobae offered.

  “Ours was ancient Hylio—war and famine took it out.” Vinnago added.

  “Ours was ancient Proscol, and while it was never fully destroyed, it dwindled away to dregs and became a nomadic land for centuries before it was built back up as a tourist attraction.” Yun said.

  I looked around at all the aliens and couldn’t believe how similar we were after all.

  Kianna just laughed, “Did you really think it was so strange we treated you with such respect, or were you expecting us to act like you were some primitive caveman all this time?”

  I guess that’s what it all boiled down to; I was some dumb human who ended up in the far reaches of space, and yet everyone treated me like an equal—like I belonged. I shrugged, “I guess I just wasn’t expecting everyone to be so similar and accepting. On Earth we war over the dumbest things and hate each other for the smallest differences.”

  “To be fair your race hasn’t quite fully evolved yet, so there is still room for them to improve to catch up with the rest of the Empire, but you’re all just about close enough; some great war that’ll devastate your planet and make them realize how similar they are, that’s probably all they’ll need.” Vinnago reasoned.

  I laughed at that, “Yeah great, just need to wait for World War III, then we can join the rest of the evolved space-races.”

  Eve squeezed my hand beside me, “You joke, but you really will be able to wait and watch how humanity evolves.” She shrugged, “Who knows, maybe we can even return to Earth and help them.”

  Well, there was a thought; finish up the Predazoan mission, hang around the Empire for a few centuries with Eve chasing after whatever adventure we fancy, then return to Earth to help facilitate their evolution.

  Eve smiled, “We could do it you know, if you wanted.”

  Would I want it? Or would I just want humanity to sort itself out?

  I leaned down to give Eve a tender kiss, “Nah, let them figure their own mess out; we’ll be off on our own adventures far away from Earth by then.”

  Eve trilled a little giggle and leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder with her tentacles draped around me, massaging me neck, she let out a content sigh like there was nowhere else she’d rather be.

  And for that matter there was nowhere else I’d rather be; surrounded by my alien friends, snuggled up with my Predazoan girlfriend, happy to watch the insane futuristic jousting aboard the paradise vacation station.