It’s early. The artificial light shines through the blinds, the various beakers and vials glisten as Rey Ana Hari starts her prep. She gathers her ingredients; some leaves, some powders. She inspects every leaf, cleaning them with what seems to be a small toothbrush. She carefully measures out the little red powder. 115mg for every 200 leaves that go through the Vatmix and Bubble Reactor, binding the powder to the leaves to create her final product. She carefully preps two hundred leaves, brushing them, washing them. She tests some of the residue reactions, making sure the powder is pure. Then she adds all the ingredients to the reactor.“I call it ‘Leave’, because it makes you feel completely external from your body on the dancefloor,” she proudly exclaims.
“That’s awesome, actually, but we can’t go and clean every leaf like that, Rey! It would be much easier to clean the leaves in a chemical vat, evaporate them and create this whole substance as a powder combination in pill form. This just seems counter-intuitive, and a little gross, to be honest,” her Orun coworker argues.
“You would say that! You only ever think about pills! Why are so many people grossed out by natural products?! I’m trying to create a unique experience here, damnit! Each leaf gives a slightly different high, meaning our product will always keep customers coming back. If you process it all chemically, besides insulting my work as a scientist AND as an Aikalaymeh, you’ll also create a uniform experience, meaning people will get bored of it!”

A fancy room, a wall covered in screens to make it seem like there’s a sky out there, fake wood panels adorning the walls. A gigantic oval table stands in the middle, a single door in the back of the elongated room. Sitting at the table is a large, well dressed Sunithan, Rey, and her coworker from the lab.
“Look, Rey…” Berosha’s fiscalist starts, “…it’s not that we don’t like the composition or the ingredients. Those are all affordable. But your process… it’s too expensive.”
Rey hisses, her sides fuming a little as she tries to stay calm.
“Look for another way, Rey, or I’ll have to concur with your coworker here. It’s a good party drug, but not for these manufacturing costs. You have until the end of the day.”
Her coworker stares at Rey sheepishly, as she suppresses another bout of bubbling anger.

“Rey, just stop. Go home and let us make these as pills. You’re not going to figure it out!”
“I am a goddamn Aikalaymeh. I absolutely will figure this out, you haughty backstabbing son of a bitch. I’ll be here all night if I have to,” she yells at the Orun as he slowly backs away.
This isn’t Rey’s first successful drug, it’s how she was hired at Berosha. Her knowledge and experience. As she works on her leaves, she keeps reminding herself of that. That it wasn’t a diversity hire, despite a lack of other Aikalaymeh in these labs. That she is a valuable member of this team. As she runs through her books, testing chemical reaction after chemical reaction, she wonders if she shouldn’t have just given in. She shakes her head. These are her ways, she won’t let them go just because of a job.

The Orun walks into the lab, quickly startled by the Aikalaymeh yelling excitedly.
“Haha! YES. SUCK ON THAT! Manufacturing costs my tail!”

“So, as you can see, this morning, I perfected the cocktail that can clean these leaves and prep them for the adhesion bath for a FRACTION of the cost of producing them as pills. So, let’s argue this again, shall we?” Rey opens the meeting smugly.
The Sunithan clasps his hands together and looks down at the table.
“…it surely is impressive, yes.”
“But…?”
“But, I said you had until the end of yesterday.”
“So?”
He raises his head to look at her,“It means you used company time and company resources, against direct orders.”
Rey gulps a little, realizing exactly what’s happening here. She tries to suppress the anxiety rising in her chest, reminding herself that she is a valuable member. A valuable member. Not a diversity hire. A valuable member.
“As such, we’re going to have to let you go, Rey. That said, this is a great product. Consider it your legacy at Berosha. Thank you for your time and dedication,” as he slides her resignation documents over to her headset. Rey feels the heat slip from her sides, like a deflating balloon.
“So, shall I proceed with the mass production, as discussed?” the Orun finalized.

The reptillian Aikalaymeh originate from the luscious jungle planet of Kardamyr, where they evolved from apex predators. Due to these surroundings and their heritage, Aikalaymeh are especially tough and nimble, as well as being highly adaptable. They display a strong survival instinct in almost any habitable ecosystem due to their physiology and biodiverse planet.

Before The Coalition arrived and integrated them, the Aikalaymeh formed a tribal hunter/gatherer society. This social structure was aided by their biology, as the most noticeable difference between the two sexes of Aikalaymeh are the eyes. The females have orange eyes with a single slit pupil, giving them excellent depth perception, as well as allowing them to see in the dark. The males, on the other hand, have bright blue eyes with three, almost indiscernible, pupils, allowing them to see a much wider color spectrum that includes both infrared and ultraviolet light. This created a natural divide in roles, the males foraged and cooked, as they are capable of discerning minute differences between flora, while the females were the superior hunters, due to their depth perception. This put the males in the position of taking care of the young as the women were out hunting. Aikalaymeh children are born from eggs and are raised communally by capable elders, usually males, who are not always their actual biological parents. This reinforces their sense of community, making them fiercely loyal to their clan members, whom they refer to as Kai, while caring little about blood bonds.

When The Coalition” arrived, they initially wanted to dismiss the Aikalaymeh as a primitive species and to take them by force, as Kardamyr is extremely rich in natural resources. When a Neyf analysis showed that, despite being the dominant species of the planet, the Aikalaymeh lived in near perfect equilibrium with Kardamyr’s entire ecosystem, barely leaving any ecological footprint. “The Coalition” had never encountered a world like it before and several Coalition members argued that the Aikalaymeh ought to be approached as an intelligent culture worth preserving, possibly teaching them some of that ecological balance.

The Aikalaymeh promptly agreed to be entered into The Coalition, as it allowed them to discover more ecosystems, more flora and thus attain broader experiences, under one condition. To leave Kardamyr clean of technology or of the influence of the encroaching technocracy, it is one of the very few habitable Coalition planets without a Unicity.

Two millennia after integration within The Coalition most Aikalaymeh have let go of their traditional dislike of technology. Though some conservatives still choose to live on Kardamyr, free of any technology, in accordance with their historical roots. Modern Aikalaymeh still have a strong tribal nature, remaining loyal to the principles of clan and Kai. An Aikalaymeh without a clan is a rare occurrence.
Thanks to their affinity to nature, higher class Aikalaymeh are often employed in the academic fields of ecology, agriculture, and medicine. Middle to lower class Aikalaymeh perform well in craft and physical labour, and in the criminal spheres. In those, Aikalaymeh are valued couriers, as well as hired muscle, thanks to their tough and nimble physique.
When it comes to the black market drugs trade the Aikalaymeh have a reputation of being the best drug dealers you could hope to find.