The Gaoian diplomatic shuttle turned out to be surprisingly comfortable. The similarity in size between Gaoians and humans meant that Rylee felt nicely accomodated-for, rather than dwarfed by furniture built larger than human demands required.
Goruu handed her a glass of Talamay. “Be warned, I heard this stuff does something funny to humans.”
“Funny how?” Rylee asked, sniffing it.
“There’s a human living on our homeworld.” Niral said. “Apparently after a few glasses of talamay she giggled a lot, fell asleep and woke up feeling awful.”
“I thought I smelled alcohol.” Rylee said. “Screw it, I’m off duty.” she took a sip and was rewarded by something that tasted surprisingly like Fanta.
The Gaoians shared a faintly confused glance. “The alcohol? That just flavours it and kills microorganisms…doesn’t it?” Goruu asked.
“You guys don’t get drunk?”
Again there was a blank look. “The translator seems to be getting confused?” Niral said. “Of course we aren’t imbibed, we imbibe the drink.”
“Nono. Intoxicated?”
“That word didn’t even translate.”
“Really? Okay, well it means, like…. altered brain chemistry leading to a changed state of mind.”
Difficult though it was to read their expressions, Niral and Goruu were clearly drawing a complete blank.
”…wow. You guys are missing out. What’s this game?”
They introduced it to her. As a veteran of countless airbase games of poker, picking up the bidding and bluffing side of the game was trivial, though the unfamiliar cards and a few different mechanics kept it interesting and cost her a couple of early hands. A couple of hours flashed by with all the speed of good fun, good company and good drink, and all three of them became quite thoroughly acquainted as they played.
Maybe it was just the alcohol giving her confidence, but she was feeling certain that she was about to lure Goruu into running a perfectly solid hand into the teeth of her own carefully-assembled counter to it when something in the Firefang’s pocket chirruped. He fished out a device that looked practically identical to a smartphone, consulted it, and growled.
“They need me back at the party.” he said. “Hopefully I won’t be long…”
“We’ll be fine.” Niral assured him, and watched him go with what Rylee took for undisguised physical attraction.
She laughed as the Sister turned back and skewed her ears, embarrassed. “Oh yeah, you two are gonna bang.” she said.
Niral gave her a curious look. “You’re very…forthright about that.”
“I’m teasing, Niral. I can’t blame you, he’s a great guy.”
This earned her an even stranger look.
”…what?” She asked.
“We only just met, Rylee…do you mind if I ask you a very personal question?”
Rylee sipped her Talamay then shrugged. “Sure.”
“That’s three times now you’ve spoken about Goruu as if you’d consider him as a potential mate.”
“I have?”
Niral ducked her head in what Rylee had learned was an emphatic Gaori nod. “You said ‘I’d break him’, you just said that he’s a ‘great guy’.”
Rylee sipped her drink, mentally noting that she’d need to stop soon: her head was starting to go genuinely fuzzy. “Does that bother you?”
“Well…maybe this is just a species thing, but that’s how a fellow Gaoian female would talk if she was also eyeing him up for a mating contract. And just before that you sounded as if you thought the idea of me and him was…”
“Hot?”
”…Appealing.”
“So what’s your question, Niral?”
“Are you?”
“Am I…. what, are you asking if I would have sex with Goruu if I could?”
“I…well, I’m not sure. That’s a very strange idea to me, Rylee. But…okay, would you?”
Rylee felt an uncharacteristic rush of heat to her ears but forced herself to be truthful. “Privately, just between us girls? …I don’t know. Part of me wants to,” she confessed.
Niral made a soft growling noise, which Rylee speculated could only mean disbelief. “But he’s not even your species!” she objected.
“So?”
“You couldn’t have cubs!”
“So…okay, is sex only about having cubs for you guys?” Rylee asked.
“That’s why we have mating contracts. Are you saying your species do it for other reasons?”
Rylee thought about that for a second, then sat up and set her drink down. “How would you react if I told you that I’ve had sex with other women?” She asked.
”…I…that’s just such an alien idea, Rylee. Why would you want to? Two females can’t have cubs together.”
“Because it’s fun! Doesn’t sex feel good for Gaoians though? Physically? Does the word ‘orgasm’ translate for you guys?”
“Well…yes. To both questions.” Niral said. Her ears were pointing almost completely opposite directions to one another: had she been human, Rylee suspected that Niral would have been bright red, squirming in her seat and fidgeting with her hands. “But that’s just…nice, you know? It’s not the point of mating.”
“Okay, so that’s how things are for your species. Fair enough.” Rylee said. “For mine, sex is about a whole lot more than having children. It’s…equally or even more about fun, pleasure and emotional intimacy.” Rylee said. “That’s more true for some people than for others, but in my case I don’t plan on ever having cu-, uh, children.”
”…You don’t? Ever?!”
“Nope. I’m doing important work where I am. Getting pregnant and taking maternity leave would take me away from all the action, and by the time that changes, I’ll be too old. But I like getting laid, and all I’m after from sex is the fun and not the commitment.”
She poured herself another drink and rested her head back again. Niral couldn’t resist probing for more information, however. Strange though it was, she hadn’t come to Earth out of a lack of fascination for this species, and Rylee had opened up a whole world of new questions that she would prefer not to leave unanswered.
“But…mating still leads to procreation for your kind, right? Can you consciously choose not to have cubs?”
“In a way…here.” Rylee stood up and shrugged out of her jacket, tugged off her tie and pulled her shirt over her head. She sat down wearing only a dark grey undergarment that covered and restrained her breasts.
Niral’s jaw threatened to drop. The human pilot’s body was an education in alien anatomy all by itself, layered in muscle atop solid muscle, each leaving a firm impression through the skin. There were so many of them! The overall effect was alien, but not ugly: Rylee’s body hinted at the incredible strength that was stored inside it, but also at agility, poise and exceptional control.
Seeing her staring, Rylee barked one of those human laughs, looked up, grabbed a structural spar on the ceiling and, after testing its weight-bearing capacity, hauled herself up into the air, pulling her legs up until they were pointed straight out in front of her, parallel with the ground. She found her pose and became perfectly still, a study in huge forces all finely balanced against one another.
“I had two dreams when I was a little girl. I was either going to be an astronaut, or join Cirque du Soleil” she said, conversationally. In a rapid yet smooth movement she flipped around until she was gripping the bar behind her, and lowered herself back to the deck. She alighted with a thump, and wobbled a bit on her feet.
“Woo. Yeah, I’ve had enough Talamay.” she said, collapsing back onto the couch, which creaked alarmingly under the impact of a weight it hadn’t been designed to handle.
“That was incred…wait, you can do that in Earth gravity?” Niral asked.
“Sure can! I can’t hold it for as long but…yeah, I need to show you Cirque du Soleil sometime, those guys make me look clumsy.”
She finished her drink and slid the bottle away from her. “Anyway…about choosing to not get pregnant from sex: feel here.” she said, indicating a crease between two muscles in her upper arm, neither of which even existed on Gaoians. Niral did so, tentatively, and recoiled when Rylee laughed and jerked away. “Firmer! You can’t hurt me and if you don’t really go for it you’ll just tickle me.” the human demanded.
Niral ducked her head in a nod and complied, firmly trying to bury her fingers in Rylee’s arm. It was like trying to push her hand through Tarimit wood but she felt, just below the surface, a little nub of matter that was even harder than the flesh around it.
“What is that?” She asked.
“Contraceptive implant. It releases a hormone that occurs naturally in human women and stops us from ovulating when we’re pregnant. Basically, it tricks my body into thinking I’m pregnant all the time, so I never actually get pregnant. So I can have all the sex I like without risking having a cu- a child.”
“But if you did have one, couldn’t your Sisters…no, wait, you don’t have a clan of females, do you?”
“Nope. If I had a kid, I’d either have to give up my career to look after them, which I’m not willing to do, or put them up for adoption or foist them on my brother or parents, which sounds immoral and irresponsible to me. And while I’m pro-choice, I’m dead-set against ever having an abortion myself, so I’m always care…what?” She paused upon seeing Niral’s expression.
“Abortion?”
“Ah…yeah. Termination of pregnancy.”
“You’d KILL an unwanted cub?” Niral looked sickened and horrified, her ears flattened themselves back along her skull and her eyes widened.
“I wouldn’t!” Rylee protested. “That’s how I see it too, I think it’s disgusting and wrong, and I take every precaution I can to make sure I never need to even consider it.”
“But you said…pro-choice? So you think other human women should be allowed to do that?”
“I think they should have the choice. When they choose to do that, well…it’s on their soul, not mine.” Rylee lamented. “Nobody wants for that to happen, nobody likes it, it’s just…you know, it’s seen as being the better alternative to giving the child a shitty life, you know? And the fact is that giving people the choice and the education to avoid having to make it works a lot better than just outright banning the practice.”
Niral still looked shaken, but she collected herself and thought about it. “I…that’s incredibly sad, Rylee. And upsetting. To think that a mother could ever find herself weighing her cub’s happy future against its life and deciding the kindest thing to do would be to…” She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
The human had the decency to look troubled. “Yeah.” she agreed.
“Couldn’t you just…not have sex unless and until you were willing to have little ones?”
Rylee sighed. “Some people try. They don’t usually succeed. We’ve got this whole “abstinence-only” thing where I’m from, and the kids who try to follow it are the ones who usually wind up having babies first because they can’t stop themselves, they get horny, they get laid, they don’t take the right precautions and…boom. Unwanted teenage pregnancy, and that often leads to a lot of problems for the child down the line.”
“It’s that powerful?” Niral inquired. “Your mating drive, I mean? That you can’t stop yourselves?”
“Hell yes. We do all kinds of stupid shit when it overtakes us: completely lose our focus, act without thought for the consequences…”
Enlightenment smote Niral in the forehead. “OH! You’re like the Vgork!”
Rylee frowned. “I don’t think I’ve met a Vgork…”
“Their males have this thing where the more highly placed they are in the social order, the more often they need to mate or else they’re overcome by a berserk rage. It usually ends badly.” Niral looked alarmed “Oh stars, and you’re a lot stronger and harder to subdue than they are…”
“No! No, that sounds a lot worse than we have it.” Rylee interrupted, soothingly. “We just get irrational and careless, but we CAN restrain ourselves. It’s just uncomfortable and distressing. Physically painful, even. So yes, we could ‘just not have sex’, but at the very least it’s frustrating.”
She set her head back again, staring off at nothing.
“And…you feel the mating urge towards Goruu? Despite that he’s not human?” Niral asked.
Rylee didn’t look up. “It’s…not exactly. It’s more like…I like Goruu as a person; I hope we’ll be friends, and usually I like to have sex with my friends. That’s kinda colliding with the fact that he’s not human in my head and, yeah, it’s weird for me too.”
She looked up and smiled sheepishly. “And I’m sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, Niral, but the same goes for you.”
Niral gave her a long, flat-eared stare. “It does?” she squeaked.
“Absolutely!” Rylee exclaimed. “And if you’re wondering how to take that, take it as a compliment. You’re a beautiful person. But neither of you are interested and even if you were we couldn’t possibly do it without you risking serious injury, so that’s where it ends.”
She sighed. “I know I’ve said that the, uh, ‘urge’ is a powerful thing, but emotionally well-balanced people have no problem with their interest not being reciprocated, and I wouldn’t even be up here if a lot of highly qualified people didn’t agree that I’m emotionally well-balanced. So yes, I ‘feel the urge’ towards both of you, but it’s under control and fading. But if there was no physical danger involved and if you both consented to it, I’d jump at the chance. Does that sound fair?”
“It sounds very strange and alien, but…You’re not Gaoian, I shouldn’t be surprised that you don’t behave exactly like Gaoians do. So, yes, that sounds fair.”
“Friends?”
Niral looked the human in the eyes, and the vulnerability in the deathworlder’s expression took the worst off that discomfort. For all the intimidating controlled strength and thoroughly alien sexual morality, she was still talking to a fellow emotional sophont who had exposed herself to potentially serious social consequences out of trust and honesty. The human immediately became less dangerously alien in her eyes, and was again just Rylee.
”…Friends.” she agreed, and chittered happily when Rylee sagged with relief.
“Thank you, Niral.”
“I do have one more question, though.” Niral told her, as Rylee began to put her shirt back on.
“Shoot.”
“Is your attitude…typical? Of humans?”
“Oh, no! No! Far from it. I’m REALLY open-minded, and I decided a long time ago not to have any hangups about it.” Rylee said.
“Why?”
“Because the people who mind don’t matter, and the people who matter don’t mind.”
Niral thought about this. “I think that’s probably not an idea that works so well for Gaoians.” she said. “But you ARE controversial, then?”
Rylee grimaced. “Controversial, yeah. That’s putting it mildly. There are places on Earth where I’d be buried up to my neck and have rocks thrown at my head for being so sexually liberated.”
”…I’m sorry, was that an exaggeration or not? Because after the abortion thing…”
Rylee looked uncomfortable and a touch ashamed. “It wasn’t. Sadly.”
Again there was that disbelieving chirrup from Niral and an expression of mild horror.
“We can be kind of shitty to one another sometimes.” Rylee said. “I’d never do something like that and neither would anybody I care to associate with.”
“I understand.” Niral told her. “There are violent bigots in every species.”
Rylee smiled, and the last of the tension fled her entirely. “Thank you for understanding, Niral.”
“Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me these things.”
“What things?” Goruu asked, stepping back into the shuttle.
”…Female! Female things.” Niral squeaked, scooping up her cards. Goruu hesitated, then quirked his head in a Gaoian shrug and sat down at the card game again.
Rylee suppressed her smile. Gaoians were so cute sometimes.
Scotch Creek Extraterrestrial Research Facility
Martin Tremblay’s welcome to the Operation Stolen Star briefing room was the squeal of forty chairs as forty pairs of boots propelled their wearers to attention.
“As you were.” he said, acknowledging the collective respect and approaching the lectern at the front of the room as the men sat back down.
Its current occupant, Captain Owen Powell, was the commanding officer of the Stolen Star unit, and Tremblay couldn’t have asked for a better unit lead. Powell had regained the rank of Captain after enduring the British special forces tradition of demotion back to Private when he had joined the Special Boat Service.
“General.” He said.
“Apparently I have to make a speech.” Tremblay said, to general mirth. “I promise it’ll be quick.”
Powell stepped aside. “Take it away, sir.”
Tremblay adjusted the lectern’s microphone and considered the men in front of him for a second. Canadians, British, Americans, Australians, and a smattering of others, all with long, impressive and heavily classified service records.
“The last hundred years” he began “have been full of firsts. Not all of them were illustrious ones. But they’re all worth remembering. The first world war, the first use of a nuclear weapon…but I think there have been many more positive ones than negative: The first man in space, the first man on the moon, the first woman to travel faster than light.”
“Except.” he said, adjusting the mic again “…not really. Yuri Gagarin, it turns out, was not the first person in space, nor was Rylee Jackson the first to exceed lightspeed. Those honours both, according to the information we have, belong to a Roman soldier called Lucius Bellator Maximus.”
“Have we had our heroes stripped from us by alien action? No. Because that Roman didn’t go into space knowingly or willingly. Gagarin did. Jackson did. And it was human skill, science and engineering that let them do it.
“So, are you going to be the first men to set foot on an alien world? No. Are you going to be the first men we send there? Absolutely, and that’s an honour that sets you alongside the giants of history.”
“Theirs, however, were missions of discovery. Their objectives were to break new boundaries for the sake of breaking them, to prove that they could be broken. You are called to something higher. Not to impugn discovery as a cause, but I personally rate freedom even more highly, and you are being called upon to travel to another world not only to prove that it can be done, but to defend that world and to turn it into the vehicle of our liberation from a prison we do not deserve.”
“The future liberty of the human race may rest on your ability to get this job done. I am in absolutely no doubt that we have never been in safer hands.”
There was polite applause as he stepped back, and shared a salute with Powell. “Carry on, Captain.”
“The Ambassadorial party is staying on this station overnight.” Goruu said, after Rylee had gone. It had been surprising and both alarming and funny to see the usually graceful human pilot stumble back towards the spartan bunk she had erected for herself under one of Pandora’s wings, failing to even keep to a straight line.
“They’ve had quarters made up for them?” Niral asked him.
“Yes. There are nest-beds up there for us as well…”
“That’s a pity…and here I thought we had some privacy tonight. I had this contract all ready for you to sign…” Niral said, holding it up.
The expression of delight on Goruu’s face was priceless.