by Robin Roseau
"There is a space station. It's out at Saturn's orbit."
"There should be one here in Earth orbit."
"There is. Humans have the International Space Station."
"Why isn't there an ET space station?"
"Do you know how your military would react to that?"
"I can guess. But they allow your spaceships to come and go, apparently."
"We're carefully polite about it. We use our base on the moon as a transfer station from further distances. It is somewhat less intimidating than a satellite just over your heads."
"I didn't know you had a base on the moon."
"We don't advertise it, but we don't hide it, either. Your military knows, and they don't like it." She shook her head. "As if there's a thing they could do if we had ill intentions."
"That is what makes them so nervous, the utter certainty they are helpless." I looked away from her. "A familiar feeling of late."
"You should not be nervous, Sapphire."
I didn't respond. I wasn't ready to fight with her about it. Instead I asked, "How long will it take to reach the moon?"
"About eight hours."
"It took our astronauts three days."
"The physics for us are quite different. We do not use massive acceleration at the beginning and then coast for three days. We accelerate the entire way."
"We must be going amazingly fast when we arrive."
"All right. We accelerate until we are halfway, then we decelerate for the second half. That is not it exactly, but it is the principle that matters."
"Oh. I see."
"We actually take a rather complicated path. We will go into orbit and then begin the real acceleration. We'll orbit Earth two and a half times, and our path is a hyperbola after that. We then form a partial figure eight, passing around the front of the moon and entering lunar orbit..."
She looked at my expression.
"Too much information?"
"Business major, not astrophysicist."
She growl-laughed. "This is basic physics."
"Maybe for you."
"Even for man. I believe you call it Newtonian physics."
"Um. Okay. How are the Vikings doing this year?"
"Excuse me?"
"I'm changing the subject."
"Oh. Who are the Vikings?"
"Human warriors. They compete against other warriors in an arena that makes your arena look like a child's sandbox."
"This is a human sporting team, isn't it?"
I smiled. "I probably don't know anything more about football than you do. So answer me this. When may I go to the bathroom?"
* * * *
The shuttle to the moon was far more plush than the lander we'd flown from Africa. The seats were sisters to the chairs I'd encountered in my initial testing, and I balked when Bronze told me to strip.
"You must. Clothing interferes with the functions of the chair."
"Then you strip."
"I'm going to, as soon as we get you settled snugly in place."
"You're going to make me sit in that chair for the next eight hours? I wanted to experience weightlessness."
"Our periods of free fall are exceedingly brief, and we do not get out of the chairs."
"What if I have to go to the bathroom?"
"The chair sees to your needs, Sapphire. Have you forgotten?"
"So I just wet myself, and it cleans me up?"
"Of course not. The chair inserts-"
"La! La! La! La! La!"
"What are you doing?"
"Drowning you out. I don't want to hear about the chair probing me." She offered a confused look. "Just look up alien probing, okay? You might need to throw in the word 'redneck' in your search."
"Is this pertinent?"
"No." I put on a stubborn look.
"Sapphire, are you going to remove your clothing and climb into your chair, or do I have to explain about the chair probing you?"
I stared up into her eyes. "This is yet another reason I didn't want to leave Earth. I'm sure I'd be far more cooperative for the next five months if we stayed in Paris or something. You can show me the Eifel Tower instead."
"You'll be quite comfortable. More importantly, you'll be safe. There are others waiting to board the craft. They are waiting because I knew you dislike letting people see you without clothing, but if I have to explain everything before you cooperate, our departure will be late, and the pilot will rightfully blame us."
"You're going to keep me in that chair the entire way, aren't you?"
"Yes, of course."
"I'm going into space, but I don't get to float around," I whined. "And now I bet you're telling me I won't be able to look out the window."
"Your visor will project images for you."
"I wanted to see Earth with my own two eyes."
"Your glasses are in our luggage, which we cannot access. So if you use your own two eyes without the visor, you won't see a thing. And if you're going to use the visor, you may as well do it from the chair where you will be safe." Her tone grew stern, and she pointed to the chair.
"But-"
"You will have an amazing view of Earth, through your glasses, if you prefer, from the moon. But I'd recommend you use the visor." She stabbed her finger towards the chair again.
"Fine. But I'm not stripping."
"Sapphire..." she growled.
"Do not take that tone with me! Fine. I'll strip. Turn around. You're not getting your jollies by watching me."
She crossed her arms and didn't bat an eyelash. Not that she had any.
"If I'm stripping, you're stripping first."
"You will stop fighting with me."
"No, but I'll strip and get into the damned chair."
"Excellent," she said in mock cheer. And then she efficiently removed every piece of clothing and stowed them in an overhead bin.
I looked her up and down pointedly. She really did have an amazing body. For a space alien. For a damned amazing space alien.
"Perhaps I won't need five months," she said. "You seem to like what you see."
I tried to think of a smartass remark, but for once, words failed me.
"Your turn, Sapphire. You made a promise."
"Fine, fine." I removed the outer articles easily enough, handing them to Bronze to stow, but the bra took some self-convincing, and the undies even more so. Handing her the undies was the worst. I scrambled to the chair, hoping it would quickly hide my most private places.
"If you sniff those, this relationship is over."
"I wouldn't dream of it. I'd rather sniff the source."
"I'm not in the mood for teasing."
"I'm not teasing." She stowed the last of my clothing, and the chair still hadn't closed around me.
"It's not working."
"Patience." She climbed into her own chair, and then a moment later, the chairs began to absorb both of us, mine starting just a moment or so before hers.
"You had to sit first?"
"I had to issue the proper commands."
The chair enveloped me to my chin but then stopped. I could turn my head, but that was all the flexibility I had.
I'd gotten used to it, however, and I had to admit -- but only to myself -- it was comforting to be held like this.
"If you wish pleasant conversation," Bronze said, "we may talk for a while. If you are in a mood, then I will finish closing your chair and disable your visor's communications channel."
I looked straight ahead. "You'd really isolate me?"
"I am unaccustomed to my mate arguing with me with such a tone as you take. It is deeply unsettling to me."
"You are unaccustomed to your mate talking to you, as you've never had a mate."
"That isn't true." But she looked away, and I could feel her sorrow.
"Bronze? What happened to him? Did you divorce?"
"Her. She died. Temier biology only allows one lifetime mate. That was when I left my planet to come here."
"
I'm sorry. Did you want to talk about her?"
"Not today. Someday." She turned back to me. "Please don't argue with me anymore today."
"All right. I'm sorry."
"You should perhaps understand more about Temier biology. Would you like to talk about that now, or something else?"
"Now is good, if you're sure."
She nodded.
Alien Biology
Temier are born as two genders: male and female, just like humans. But the females are not fertile until they are mated. It does not matter at what age they mate, it is the mating process that begins the changes that lead to fertility.
I have stated there are two types of females, but that is not true at birth or at the start of the mating process. It is the mating process itself that initiates the differentiation.
Sometimes, two females who are friends choose to become mates. They may even choose who is to become the creator of life and who is to become the bearer of life.
But it is far more common for a female to hunt for another female. This can begin many ways. A female may, through social situations, identify the woman she wants for a mate, and she will initiate the mating ritual in this fashion.
This is analogous to how I selected you.
Or a female may begin a more random hunt, searching around the edges of our family units for a vulnerable female to take.
Sometimes two hunting females fight over the same female. Sometimes one hunting female will find herself the target of another female's hunt. Sometimes two hunting females will each hunt each other. But of course, only one prevails.
Many hunts are unsuccessful, and the hunter goes home to lick her wounds and try another day. Perhaps she was unable to find a female to hunt. Perhaps the female was well protected, and she was driven off by other Temier. Perhaps she is driven off by another hunting female.
I will tell you how it was with me.
I knew the female I wanted as my mate. We were classmates at our version of University, although we studied different topics. She was bright and witty, and we enjoyed each other's company.
She told me she would begin her hunt after graduation, and then she asked what my plans were after graduation. At the time, I thought it was a clumsy attempt at subtlety. I knew she intended to initiate a hunt for me. She intended to make me the child bearer, and she would be the creator of life. But I learned later she was intentionally warning me.
She didn't, however, expect me to jump the gun.
You understand. Our biology drives us to become the creator. That is how our DNA reproduces. The child bearer's DNA is not used, and she is never fertile that way. We both wished the role of creator of life; nearly all Temier females wish this role.
And so she displayed her intentions too soon, and I didn't wait. I initiated my own hunt, and I knew her schedule well enough to find her when she was alone. We fought, and if she had bested me, I would have become the child bearer. But neither of us got the upper hand, and she drove me off.
After that, we hunted each other. Neither of us returned to University for our last few months, and we would finish later. Instead, we pursued each other over hundreds and hundreds of kilometers, clashing frequently.
At first, we were well matched, and neither of us was able to achieve an advantage. But then she found me during a moment of weakness, and while she was unable to best me, she initiated my transition to become the bearer of life. I was able to escape from her without completing the transition, but she pursued me relentlessly, and I did not find time to recover. I escaped from her only in an act of desperation. I fled from her into a raging river, and I could easily have died. Instead, I made it to the other bank, far downstream from where I had gone in, and then I lay there, barely moving, as she paced back and forth along the opposite bank, howling her fear for me and frustration I had escaped.
And that was when she made her own mistake. The river was far too dangerous for either of us to cross again, and I really should have accepted my role in our relationship rather than fleeing into it myself. After that, she should have broken off her pursuit. Instead she moved downstream, looking for a place to cross and return to me, hoping to reach me while I lay weak and nearly beaten. If she had found me again, I would have submitted to her.
Instead, it took her two days to cross and two days to return to me. And I spent those four days recovering. I ate well, and by the time she returned, I was strong. She was weakened by her travels.
And so, I triumphed. I took her. She struggled underneath me, but I took her, and then her struggles weakened, and weakened further as the process to become a child bearer consumed her.
I believe my act of desperation disheartened her. If she had driven me off, or if she had fled, or if she had simply gone home, the change for both of us -- the equivalent of human puberty -- would have reversed, and we would have both returned to a pre-change female.
But that did not happen. I took her, and we mated, our bond permanently sealed. I became the creator of life, and she became the child bearer. And if she was at first angry at losing, her anger gave way to the joy found in our mating.
I took her, and in that taking, we became deeply devoted to each other.
At this point, we were a mated Temier pair, and at first, we were inseparable. It is only with time that we could bear to be apart, and then only for a few hours at a time. We dug a den together, for newly mated Temier are far more like animals than people, at least for a time. We hunted together, and we bathed each other afterwards.
Eventually we returned to civilization. We finished our degrees, and we pursued our careers. But we never had children.
I won't say how she died. Not today.
But I should explain the remainder of our biology. A mated pair is a pair. There is no male. When it is time to produce a new life, we together hunt for a male. This, too, can happen in many ways, including what you might call Internet dating. A pair finds a male that is satisfactory to both, and the pair initiates the mating. It takes the presence of both females for the male to become aroused, but then he leaves his seed only with the creator of life. The two females then drive the male away before seeking privacy to transfer the life into the bearer.
The creator then protects the bearer, and eventually, a child emerges -- you might say a cub. Both the creator and the bearer are required to make a healthy cub. We each produce nutrients, but they are different, and the cub requires nutrients from both mothers.
Because of our biology, there are emotions a Temier does not experience. A Temier is unable to cheat the way a human can. We are capable of jealousy, but once mated, we do not experience sexual jealousy. Sex with anyone other than our mate brings no pleasure. And a male cannot have sex without the presence of the pair.
Furthermore, our biology makes us deeply devoted. Her pain is my pain. Separation is difficult. In a way, we are addicted to each other. For this reason, Temier do not, for instance, go on business trips the way humans do unless they travel together. All friends are shared, and nearly all activities.
I have a few more things to explain. A Temier female must vanquish another Temier female to properly mate and to begin the process of becoming creator of life and child bearer. But before becoming mated, very few Temier wish to be child bearers. We nearly all wish to be creators of life. And so we fight fiercely.
But we also wish our mate to be fierce, because this makes our pair stronger. This makes us better hunters and better able to protect our young. This is millions of years of evolution, and civilized views and needs do not erase the biology involved.
A female who is able to drive off another female, or even get the upper hand, even if it is not enough to vanquish the hunter, is a stronger, fiercer female, and thus she is far more satisfying when finally vanquished. The mating bond is stronger, and the pleasure far greater.
This is why you and I had more than one challenge. The most primitive portion of my body sees our repeated challenges as if you fiercely fought me off. But this is
also why the challenges are as physical as they are and why in the end, I finished the final challenge the way I did. It is why the physical challenges tend to involve a hunt. It is why we did not help you better understand the challenges so that our first challenge would be a hunt, as if I were initiating a hunt for another Temier female.
In the forepart of my brain, I recognize the difference between what two Temier do, and what we did. But in the deepest parts, the most primitive parts, we came together five times, and it was only in the fifth challenge that I completely bested you, that you submitted to me and became the child bearer, allowing me to take the role of creator of life.
Lunar Landscape
We were long buttoned up in our chairs before she was done explaining, communicating through my visor and whatever enhancements she had that served the same purpose.
I sat quietly for a while, absorbing everything. I knew she had more to tell me, quite a bit more. Jasmine, after all, had spilled some of the beans, but I would wait for Bronze to tell me some of it herself. For now, I would wait.
"How long has it been?" I asked gently.
"About 20 of your years, maybe a little more. I'm not sure exactly, and it is complicated by interstellar travel. But I am somewhat older than you."
"You have been alone all this time."
"I thought I would be alone the rest of my life."
I knew that was going to lead us to a very subdued conversation, so I asked, "The other Temier, your friends?"
"Mated pairs, and there are two males. Males are never mated. We come together only briefly."
"And so if you wish us to have children, what happens?"
"We use altered human sperm and impregnate me, and then I transfer the zygote to you."
"You will make me into a child bearer."
"Yes, but you will remain human at the same time. But the child will require nutrients from both of us."
"And so we create a new species?"
"Yes, but it's not that simple, either. We create a hybrid."
"And our children? With whom will they mate? Certainly not each other!"
"No. Those details are to be resolved. We have not worked out the entire range of computer models. Unless others come, or something happens to half a mated pair -- both events are unlikely -- then I am the only Temier who will ever wish a mate from amongst the humans. But it is more likely our children will be altered to be more compatible with either Temier or human physiology."