by Aer-ki Jyr
“Upgraded how?”
“Higher end genetically engineered abilities that we have to earn. They’re a bit of a power hog, but extremely useful.”
“Such as?”
“Remember what I did when I rescued you from the mercs?”
“I remember you taking their weapons . . . and being naked,” she added with a smirk.
“Remember me knocking them around?” he asked.
“Vaguely.” That moment in her memory was a bit of a blur.
“I was generating an energy matrix that, when released, applies concussive force. It eats up a lot of energy, so my metabolism was altered higher to match.”
“I don’t remember that, but at the time I was just glad I didn’t get shot.”
“The energy is invisible, but it creates a ripple in the light passing through it,” he said, reaching his hand out perpendicular to both of them. He made a fist and it blurred with what looked like heat waves, but Jalia didn’t feel any and she still had hold of his arm at the elbow.
Riax flicked his wrist up and the blur jumped toward Jalia’s head. Her headtails bounced as if hit with a gust of air, then flopped back down against her slim neck.
“Easy,” she teased. “Those are kind of sensitive.”
“That’s the idea,” he said as they reached the top level, heading for the crew quarters. “If you can’t see it, you have to feel it.”
“Any other powers I should know about?”
“Not unless you’re planning on picking a fight,” Riax said as Jalia pulled him in the direction of her quarters.
“You’d know if I was before I could throw a punch,” she countered. “Must be pretty handy being able to get inside people’s minds.”
“Can be, but not all are accessible, and I don’t monitor everyone constantly. So you might be able to sneak up on me if you were devious enough.”
“So where’s your tender spot? If I’m going to jump you someday I figure I’ll have about a second and a half before you own me. Need to make the most of the opportunity while I have it,” she said deadpan.
Riax suppressed a laugh. “We don’t really have a soft spot, but in my case it’d be a kick to the crotch.”
“So that’ll take you down?”
“Depends how hard you kicked.”
“Hmmn, but I’d have to be in front of you to do it. You’d see it coming.”
“Lucky me,” he said as they reached her quarters. Jalia led him inside then shut and locked the door behind them.
“Interesting,” Riax said as he spied the pod. “Your race didn’t used to use these. They preferred antigrav chambers.”
Jalia frowned as she left the door and walked up beside him. “Never heard of it,” she said as she started getting out of her dress.
“It’s a vertical cylinder that reduces gravity to less than 1% so you can sleep standing up without significant pressure on any point of your body.”
“That’d be nice,” she said, folding up her black dress and setting it in a collection bin. “This pod is soft, but it still bothers my tail sometimes.”
“You always sleep naked?” Riax asked.
“The pod adjusts to body temperature, so clothes just get in the way,” she explained as she untied her headtails, letting them flop down on her shoulders. “Is that a problem? You didn’t strike me as the shy type.”
“No,” Riax said, laughing. He mentally triggered his bodysuit’s release and four seams appeared on his collar, extending down his torso. He peeled the upper suit off his body then pulled away the shoe pieces as they also broke off along hidden seams.
“That’s . . . cool,” Jalia commented as she watched him step out of his pants with the torso pieces flopping to the side like a partially peeled silanna pear.
“Telepathically triggered,” he explained, wadding up the bundle, including shoes, and holding it up to show her. “It even glows.”
Several invisible lines suddenly lit up bright white, darting in and out of the bundle.
“Your clothing is powered?” she asked, laughing once.
“Kinetic and environmentally recharged,” he said, deactivating the lights and setting it aside on Jalia’s desk as the Junta stepped over to the illumination controls. She killed the main lights, with only the glow from the status lights showing in the otherwise pitch black room.
“How good are your eyes?” she asked, walking over to the pod.
“Good enough,” he said, waiting a heartbeat for them to adjust to the low light conditions. When they did he made out Jalia’s thin, nude outline climbing into the open half of the sleep pod. Riax walked over and looked inside. Her red skin appeared black amidst the blue/green glow. She slid over to the far side, giving him just enough room to slide in beside her.
Missing his right arm made climbing in a bit of a challenge, but he managed to lever himself up and over the edge of the meter-high pod and roll into its shallow depression beside her.
“Cozy,” he commented, wiggling around to face her as his head dropped below the invisible barrier of the shield that contained the atmosphere inside the pod to maintain the desired temperature. Their legs bumped into each other and Jalia’s ample chest was barely two centimeters away from his.
“Way better than the bunk you’ve been using.”
“True,” he admitted.
“So,” she said, running a finger across his chest. “What do Humans sleep in?”
“Whatever we want. I usually sleep in a ceiling pod.”
“What’s that?” she asked, her breath warm on his face.
“A sleeping pad on the ceiling within an inertial dampening field to negate the pull, then a localized gravity generator to keep you in place. When you wake up, you just push up off the pad and drop down to the ground. It saves floor space in small quarters.”
“Do you always talk like a tech?”
“Just answering questions before they’re asked.”
“Like what?”
“Like how do you stay on the ceiling without falling on your face?”
She snorted a laugh. “That does sound a bit like something I’d say.”
“So . . . how do two typically sleep in here? Humans usually sleep alone.”
“Lay down and I’ll adjust to you,” she said, scooting back a bit until she touched the wall with her legs. Riax slid over and laid down on his back, then Jalia leaned over and half laid on top of him with her face resting against his neck. “Humans sleep alone?”
“Usually,” Riax said, feeling his back sink into the soft pod. In retrospect it was much better than the hard bunk he’d been sleeping on.
“Don’t you couple?” she asked. “I mean, other than mating.”
“Not really, no. And we don’t mate either. Humans aren’t sexual.”
“What do you mean?” Jalia asked, taken aback.
“We’re not sexual,” Riax repeated. “We used to be a long time ago, but not anymore.”
“Then what are these for?” Jalia asked, gently grabbing his genitals.
“Purely vestigial, aside from redundant hormone production. I could have them removed from my genetic code if I wanted, but I never really saw the need . . . though I did question that decision the last time I got kicked there. It’s a very unique type of pain.”
“Whoa, hold on a second here,” Jalia said, lifting herself up and over top of Riax, straddling him and crossing her arms over his chest. She rested her chin on top of them and looked down at him. “You’re saying you don’t feel a thing right now?”
“Not like that,” he said almost apologetically. “When we lost our ability to reproduce our sex drive went with it.”
“You lost it. How?”
“A multi-race phenomenon called Apex. Don’t suppose you’ve heard of it?”
“No,” she said, a
mixture of disappointment and confusion.
“Most of the younger races haven’t,” he explained. “When a race ascends to a very high physical level they are said to reach their ‘peak,’ at which time their healing abilities become so advanced by default that they don’t decay, having virtually unlimited lifespans even if you go lazy. But at the same time the entire race’s ability to reproduce deactivates, and it does so in a way that it can’t be genetically reactivated. Even we couldn’t fully identify the cause, but we know of more than 170 races that this has happened to, most of which are now extinct.”
“You said I have Human genetics. Why aren’t we affected?”
“It doesn’t seem to be time-based, but a response to advancement. The Junta aren’t as physically advanced as us, even with the genetics that we blended with yours. It shouldn’t be something you have to worry about for thousands of years.”
Jalia chewed on her lip, thoughtfully. “So what are you feeling right now? I mean, do I disgust you? I’m not trying to be vain, but I’ve never met a non-sexual race before.”
“You don’t have to be sexual to recognize beauty,” Riax answered deftly. “And you are comfy,” he added, almost as an afterthought.
“Comfy!” she said in exasperated defeat, making a rude noise as she blew out a breath between her pursed lips. “I guess I can live with that. Not what I was hoping for, though.”
“I know.”
“You know?” she repeated, coming up for air a bit. “Oh, so you made our bet knowing that you wouldn’t be able to follow through with it?”
Riax laughed. “You said ‘spend the night in your pod,’ which is what I’m doing right now.”
“Technically I didn’t say anything,” she argued. “If you were in my head you should have known what I was thinking.”
“I did know. You just wanted to get me in here with you and take it from there.”
Jalia dipped her forehead down and rested it on her arms in surrender. “I guess I did.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“I’m the one sorry for you,” she countered. “You really can’t mate?”
“No we can’t, but it’s not really a loss for us. We stopped mating before we reached Apex anyway.”
“Why in the galaxy would you do that?”
“Given the semi-euphoric state you’re in, I don’t think you’d understand.”
“So you can sense mine, but you don’t have one of your own?”
“Yes.”
“I find that sad.”
“It actually did us a favor.”
“You call not being able to have sex a favor?”
“Pain and pleasure cannot coincide.”
“I suppose not,” Jalia said, not following him.
He reached up with his one hand and stroked one of her headtails twice, trying to figure out how to explain. “Humans are constantly trying to improve ourselves. All aspects of our society are predicated on levels that we have to advance to. There are no appointments, no votes, no subjectivity involved, only what we achieve. It’s taken me 12,000 years to reach C8, and to do that has required me to train nonstop. Now training . . .”
“ . . . is painful,” Jalia interrupted him. “I think I see where you’re going with this.”
“Then finish the line of logic.”
“Ok,” she said, accepting the challenge and thinking it through. “Pleasure is a distraction to your training. No sex, no pleasure . . . more time for training.”
“Close.”
“What’d I miss?”
“You probably don’t realize this, but when your sex drive is activated it pirates your other senses to deliver the necessary mode to facilitate reproduction. This makes part of your sexuality a lie, or you might call it an illusion.”
“Go on,” Jalia said, interested in the conversation as much as her physical contact with him.
“Any significant training requires a clear head. Truth is the basis of all things, and without it you don’t advance. Therefore, why would we want to enter into a state where our senses are altered to deliver false stimuli, which in turn makes our judgment suspect and our situational awareness diminish.”
“Because it’s fun,” she said, kissing his chin.
“If you say so.”
“You’ve never been sexual? At all?”
“No, but I’m not ignorant. I’ve sensed it enough in others to understand it, and I agree with the decision my ancestors made. Sex may be fun. Ass kicking is funner.”
“But that choice was never yours to make?”
“I was one of the last few natural births before Apex occurred. It happened nearly simultaneously across the galaxy. We still don’t know how, perhaps a genetic countdown, but we never discovered such in our analysis. I was only a child and my sexuality hadn’t formed yet so no, I didn’t have a choice. Those born earlier than me did have a choice. When they ignored their sexuality it sort of deactivated. It was always there, just not used. So by my not having it at all now, I don’t have to worry about it. Thus it’s kind of like a favor for me and . . . the others,” he said, fighting back an emotional spike.
“Haha,” Jalia laughed, missing the slight hesitation in his voice. “Oh I really don’t think you know what you’re missing.”
“It’s a moot point now. Our sexuality programming isn’t suppressed, it’s totally gone.”
“Maybe this is a stupid question, but if Humans didn’t mate, how were any of you born? Clones?”
“No, Apex prevents cloning as well. The method we developed is something of a secret, and even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand, nor probably care at this point.”
“You’re right about the last part,” Jalia said, squeezing him a bit tighter. “You might not be sexual, but you’ve got me turned on. I guess Apex didn’t shut off your pheromone production, because I’ve been hot for you since we first met.”
“Actually, it did take away our pheromones.”
Jalia laughed at herself, embarrassed. “Wow. Ok, I guess that makes me, ah, I don’t know the word but it’s not a good thing.”
“Well, it is your body and your sex drive, and you can control it, but to be fair it’s not normal for your race. At least it wasn’t 16,000 years ago. Your genetics have been altered to create a more euphoric sex drive, along with, I’d imagine, an increased mental acquisition package to make you more agreeable with races’ pheromones that you can’t register,” Riax explained delicately.
“What are you saying?” she asked, her mood suddenly serious.
“Now that I’m touching you, I can sample your genetic code. It’s different from the Junta I knew, and I suspect the alteration has been deliberate.”
Jalia thought about that for a moment and Riax could feel a hidden anger rising to the surface. “To make us better sex slaves.”
“That’s what I’d guess.”
Riax sensed her libido take a serious nosedive.
“So I’m a genetically engineered slut. Wonderful,” she said, sliding off of him and intending to crawl out of the pod.
He stopped her, grabbing her thin arm and pulling her back on top of him with a little help from a telekinetic tug.
“I like you,” he said forcefully. “I don’t usually sleep with anyone, and now that you know there’s nothing sexual involved, I hope that you can appreciate that for what it is.”
She settled back on top of him. “And what is it?”
“I like you as a person, not a sex slave. Don’t let the plight of your race be confused with your sense of self. You are you, and if a Human likes you that’s saying something.”
“You’re that important, huh?” she said, her mirthful tone starting to come back.
“Well, don’t misconstrue this as an insult, but if an advanced race likes a member of a less advanced race, then the
re must be something special about that individual.”
“It’s odd,” she mused. “I’m both insulted and honored at the same time. Up until now I didn’t think that was possible.”
“So will you stay?”
“It’s my pod, you know.”
“Can I stay then?” he asked, half serious.
“Do you mind if I hold on to you and let my genetically enhanced sexual tension bleed off for a while?”
“Like I said, you’re comfy, so not a problem.”
“And you still need to pick my brain, don’t you . . . if you haven’t already started.”
“No, it takes a very deep scan.”
“Then start scanning,” she said, half sliding off him then pressing up against his side and burying her face in his neck. She reached a leg up and over and latched onto him firmly. “Run in the morning?”
“Deal,” he said, making the first telepathic connection, attempting to isolate her language pathways while she was still speaking.
“Then rest up, you’ll need your strength if you plan to keep up with me,” she jibed, letting her senses become absorbed in his touch.
“Never challenge a Human,” he whispered as he let go of most of his senses and began to deeply probe her linguistic memories, linking up commerce language words to their Esset counterparts, and from those to his own nonlingual flash identification silhouettes.
Chapter 27
THE NEXT THREE weeks were quiet ones, filled with nonstop work for Riax. If he wasn’t running circuits with Jalia, sparring with the Cres, or teaching the Kayna how to coordinate their attacks, he was running around the ship tearing it down and building it back up with the tech he’d brought onboard, scaring Jalia in the process when he started to tear down the Resolute’s gravity drive midjump.
He also spent a fair amount of time on the battleship, picking apart the Concordat structure, records, supply routes, tactics, etc. He still didn’t totally buy the Vespa’s motivation. They were too proud a race to make a cultural about-face, so he figured there was more to the story than she’d let on. He didn’t find anything particularly revealing during the jump, but he did get to know the organization and Captain Terrek fairly well as he took him to school on naval warfare tactics.