by Robin Roseau
She growl-laughed again.
"It has smart fins on it, though. I have to drop it over North America. It will land in my parents' back yard."
"I couldn't possibly allow that. Do you know the size of a crater it would cause? Unless it's the size of a perfume bottle."
"I didn't know how to miniaturize it." I sighed dramatically.
"I'm sorry. I cannot allow you to drop your bottle. We don't know who it might land on."
"We could aim for the Pentagon. I could make another one for the Kremlin."
"It's not the Russians that most frighten us."
"I suppose not anymore."
"Did you want to study now?"
"In a minute. Moirai? What we did earlier? That was nice."
"It was," she agreed.
"It was not permission."
"I know."
"I was teaching you."
"I know."
"If you are gentle and undemanding, I'll let you do those things again." She was smart enough not to say anything. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"You need some control over what happens to you."
"Yes."
"May I continue to touch you?"
"Yes."
"At night, when we go to bed, may I spend time stroking your body?"
"Yes," I whispered.
"And will you stroke mine?"
"Yes, but I'm probably going to be selfish for a while."
"I understand. I am fine if you are selfish."
"You will not tease my body unless I ask you to."
"For now."
"For now," I agreed. I thought about it. "Do you want a hint?"
"Always."
"Kissing my feet will nearly always get you somewhere. It may not get you too far, but it will get you somewhere."
She laughed. "I'll keep that in mind."
* * * *
I studied the program she gave me. I learned how to more expertly manipulate the ship's cameras. There were different models of camera, and I learned how to use the ones that were closest in capabilities to a telescope.
I learned how to tell where we were in relation to other celestial objects, beginning with the sun. Everything started with locating the sun. This was easy, of course, but it helped to orient the ship.
And while the ship was moving, I didn't need to worry about it rotating like a planet does. Oh, it could certainly rotate, but it didn't rotate continuously. So once the sun and two other objects were positively identified, all three could be kept in their various viewfinders at once without continuous adjustment. This made some things complicated, but some things easier, too.
Of course, the ship knew where it was, and it knew where everything of interest was, too. But the study program required me to actually find the various objects. The ship could have done it for me, but I wouldn't have learned anything.
So I found the sun and the moon. I wasn't allowed to find Earth. And the individual stars were so many, there wasn't something like a north star to find. But there were a number of particularly bright stars in the skies, so the ship's orientation was based off of them.
I learned to find the planets. Venus and Mars were first. I learned about Mercury, but it was currently on the other side of the sun. I found Jupiter, and I stared at it for a long time.
Then I tried to find Saturn.
"Bronze?"
"Yes?"
"Saturn is on the other side of the sun."
"Yes. It would be easier to reach six months from now. But it's not a significant impediment."
"How close will we approach the sun?"
"No closer than the orbit of Venus. I don't like going closer. We'll actually pass the other inner planets. Normally we wouldn't, but Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are somewhat aligned. Our path is outside Venus, and then we let the sun's gravity bend us around. We'll pass Mars while inside it's orbit. We don't come too close to Jupiter, although we'll be a lot closer than Earth is." She paused. "We could pass Jupiter if you want, but it's not really on the way."
"No, that's okay. I was just curious."
"We'll be pretty far from everything before we approach Saturn."
"I know it's a long way."
"Ten times as far from the sun as Earth is."
"It would be easier to go straight to the space station."
"It would," she agreed. "We'd go the other direction. But then you wouldn't get a Venus-Mars drive by."
"Will you let me drop my bottle down to the Martians?"
"Oh, they get so crabby when we do that."
"Bah. They can't do anything about it."
"They shoot green spitballs," Bronze said. "They're exceedingly accurate, too." She sobered. "We don't come very close to Mars or Jupiter, but you'll get better views than from Earth. Of course, it would be hard to compete with some of NASA's work. I do love human engineering."
"We haven't put a man on Mars yet."
"You landed a rover, and it significantly surpassed all expectations. And the time between your first human in space and landing on the moon was far more rapid than the equivalent accomplishment from any other species I know. I've been monitoring your progress. I love watching you learn."
"I'm not very good at this sort of thing."
"Poppycock."
"Where does a space alien learn a word like that?"
She growl-laughed. "I want you to at least find some of the nebulae."
"I've seen pictures before."
"And three different types of galaxies."
"They come in types?"
"Different distinct shapes."
"All right."
It took time, especially the galaxies. I thought the ship could point the telescopes for me, but if so, Bronze had disabled that capability for me, and I had to largely do it the old fashioned way. But finally I had taken clear snaps of everything she'd asked me to find.
"How's that, Bronze?"
"Well done, Sapphire. Hang on." I'd been looking at the last galaxy, but my visor went blank for a minute, and when she gave control back, I was looking at the camera selection controls, and the list that were available had changed.
"What did you do?"
"I rotated the ship. You have to recalibrate."
"Why did you do that?"
"I want you to do it without referring to the text, only the charts. Can you do that?"
"I guess we'll see, Professor."
It took me a few minutes to do the calibration. I realized the ship had helped last time. Finding the sun and the moon was easy, but finding the right stars was harder. But once I had two, the last three were easy.
Venus, Mars, and Jupiter were easy to find from there. Bronze made me find different nebulae and then named other objects she wanted me to locate. I was slow, I was sure I was slow, but I found each of them.
"Very good, Sapphire," she said. "We'll make an astronomer of you yet."
"I doubt it. They're pretty, but they're boring. They just sit out there. And I don't know how to make money off finding them."
She growl-laughed. "I see your point."
I closed everything on the visor. "My head hurts."
"Are you ill?"
"It's full of new information," I said. "Are you busy?"
"No," she said gently.
"I wish we could get out of these chairs. I'd like your hands right now."
"I'm sorry. I'd like that, too. Late tomorrow. Did you want to nap?"
"No. I'm going to close my eyes though. Will you talk to me?"
"Of course."
"Do you have thunderstorms on Temier."
"We do."
"I wouldn't suppose you have any recordings? I think I want something dim on my screen, but I don't want to use something from Earth."
"I have just the thing," she said. The visor dimmed and brightened, and I was in some sort of small structure overlooking a lake. It was raining with the occasional flash of lightning."
"Can you make it look like night, and make the flashes
a lot less bright? I don't want blackness, but I want something if I open my eyes."
"Yes, Sapphire. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I just want soothing. Do you mind?"
"No."
The light dimmed. The lightning continued, but it wasn't so strong as to shine through my eyelids. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, the sound of a gentle thunderstorm filling my ears.
"What did you want to talk about?" she asked.
"You," I said. "Not facts. Help me learn more about you, about your feelings. Things like that."
"Gentle things."
"Very gentle."
"I'll tell you about growing up, and we'll go from there."
She spoke quietly to me, gently, telling stories from when she was young. It was soft and sweet, and eventually I slept.
* * * *
"Bronze?"
I banished the storm, now nothing but a gentle rain, barely heard.
"Did you have a nice nap?"
"I'm sorry. I fell asleep."
"Do not be sorry. I encouraged it."
"Did you make me sleep?"
"Only encouraged."
"Where are we?"
"En route to Venus, although still inside the moon's orbit."
"I slept a few hours."
"A few."
"My body is so confused. I don't know what time it is."
"Your visor will tell you."
"That's not the same. I don't know what time zone my body thinks it is. Probably still Africa. What time zone do you use on the space station? Is that a stupid question?"
"Not that stupid. We calibrate for humans while in human space. When operating locally, we use local time. But it is easiest for everyone if we use Universal Time on the space station."
"That's England."
"Yes, but we do not observe daylight savings time."
"I suppose not."
"But that's just a clock. There is no standard body rhythm across species. Each species has a different sense of how long a day is, after all. Because most of what we do involves the United Nations, my department at work calibrates our day around the time in New York. We'll be adjusting our biorhythms to match."
"That's only an hour off Minnesota," I said.
"I know. Is that all right?"
"Sure," I said. "That's fine. It's going to look a little odd to wake up at 11 AM though, if the clocks are set to standard time."
"They are just numbers on a gauge."
"I know."
"All right. Your visor was using the time at the center in Africa. I am now going to command it to switch to Universal Time. But we'll stretch the days until we're both waking up when it is morning on the North American east coast. We'll be on Eastern time by our arrival at Saturn."
"All right."
In hindsight, these details seem so small, but at the time, it was another detail that served to keep me unsettled. But at least it was a small detail, and so it's not one I complained about.
"Why aren't I hungry?"
"The chair sees to your needs."
"I suppose I've gone to the bathroom, too."
"I'm not monitoring you that closely," she said with a chuckle.
"What were you doing while I napped?"
"I napped briefly. I reminisced. I worried about you."
"Because I was sleepy?"
"No."
"Oh. Because I might not stay."
She didn't answer. I stretched for a moment, which didn't mean much, as the chair held me tightly. "Are you busy now?"
"No."
"Do you have a plan to keep me entertained?"
"Did you want anything in particular?"
"Yes. I want to see how you plan to keep me entertained."
She growl-chuckled. "Do you like games?"
"Yes. Doesn't everyone?"
"The computers on this ship coupled with my eyes and your visor would allow us to play a game. We have a great many to choose between."
"Are any of these human games?"
"Of course not, but they aren't necessarily Temier games, either. The computer will teach us both how to play."
I thought about it for a minute. "I bet there are games you enjoy."
"There are," she said softly.
"I bet there are games you would like me to play with you."
"There are," she agreed even more softly.
"Then we will play one of these games," I said.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. It doesn't matter to me which games we play, after all."
"If you are sure," she suggested again. "I would like this very much. Thank you."
She -- with the computer's help -- taught me a very simple game. We played twice, and the games were very quick. I lost both, but I didn't mind.
"This game seems quite simple and rapid."
"We are playing the version as Temier children play. There are rules for adults that make the games longer and far more intriguing."
"That sounds more like it."
So she taught me the advanced rules. I sat quietly afterwards. "Symbolically, it's a hunt."
"It is. I didn't think you would see it."
"We're hunting each other."
"At first, but as one of us becomes disadvantaged, the hunt turns one-sided."
"I can see how Temier would like this game. I believe I am going to be prey."
"Most likely."
"This is like the mating hunt, isn't it?"
She took a long time before she answered. "Yes."
We played by the new rules, and it took very little time before I was the prey, and only a little longer before she captured me.
"You win," I said at the end. "I'm sorry. I'm not very good."
"You'll get better, especially with incentive."
"Incentive?"
"It is customary to play for a reward."
I laughed. "It's a good thing that was a practice game."
"The earlier games were practice games."
"No," I said. "That was a practice game. But I will play again if you can offer a handicap to me."
"Agreed," she said immediately. She then offered a handicap -- a very significant handicap, enough for her to be the prey from the beginning. But the prey didn't remain the prey, and for a while we hunted each other. And then, of course, I again became the prey. The handicap let me evade her for a time, but not enough to turn the tables a full cycle, and soon she caught me again.
My heart was pounding most of the game, and when she caught me, I laughed. She growled her own pleasure.
"That was a good game," I said. "I do not want to play this particular game again today, but if you continue to offer the same handicap, I would play again tomorrow."
She growled more pleasure, and then she said, "Now we must discuss what I have won from you."
"A hug."
"Oh no, we play for bigger rewards than a hug."
"Is there a traditional reward?"
"No. It is unique between the players. But the reward must be sufficiently large to offer excitement."
"I bet you have something in mind."
"An article of clothing."
"You want me to buy you a scarf?"
She growl-laughed, knowing I was offering a joke. "You will give me a 24-hour period lacking one article of clothing, and you will not hide from me."
I thought about it. "No problem. We can start now."
She laughed. We were both naked in our chairs and would be until late tomorrow. "No. We begin in the morning after we emerge from the chairs."
I thought about it. "Agreed if I pick which piece."
"Agreed," she said, and I could tell she was pleased. "It is time for a new game."
"Another game I don't know, and you'll expect a second article of clothing?"
"Of course."
"I don't think so. I'll play, but not with wagers."
She was quiet for a minute, and I thought she was considering inducements.
"Do you know wha
t a casino is?" I asked her.
"This is a place where humans gather to gamble money. This is not a concept I understand. Some of you gamble your life's savings away. You lose your houses, your cars, everything. Some people go into deep debt and must borrow from unscrupulous people."
"And you don't understand why?"
"No."
"Would you like to understand why?"
"It is not pertinent."
"It is. You'll understand when I'm done, and you will value the lesson."
"Why is that?"
"Because you'll be able to use it to manipulate me."
She growl-laughed for a long time before asking, "And what do you want in exchange for this lesson?"
"You will spend the same 24-hour period lacking the same article of clothing I just agreed to omit for myself."
"Agreed!"
So I explained about slot machines, and how they pay out irregularly, but enough for people to convince themselves they could win big. I explained about the flashing lights and the excitement. I spent perhaps ten minutes explaining. When I was done, I asked, "Do you understand what I am telling you?"
"You are telling me if I want you to play, then you must win, perhaps less than you lose, but often enough to come back again."
"That's right. And the flashing lights?"
"Sometimes you should win small things, but there must be the promise of winning big things."
"Yes. And you will piss me off if you try offering me things that I could normally do if I were home. So you are left with doing things for me I value, or finding ways to amuse me you wouldn't normally do. Or perhaps things you might do anyway, but that a human girlfriend might not. And this should be from amongst the list of things I couldn't just ask for. You already give me backrubs whenever I want, so if you begin to withhold them, I'll feel cheated."
"I believe I understand."
"And you must never ask for your prizes to be too big. I will not lose my house gambling. That is not my nature. Actually, I hate gambling, and I never do it. But I enjoy these games, if the stakes remain small and you keep me engaged."
"You are willing to play my games?"
"Yes, but if you want me to play for stakes, you must change the rules enough I could win."
"You did well in the last game."
"In time, with that handicap, I could begin to win, at least some of the times, so I would keep playing with the expectation I will get better. But if I never win, I will presume you went easy on me early on so I would be lulled, and when I come to that conclusion, I will stop playing any games at all with you."