The next day was a return to more normalcy. I helped with
bread in the morning and overseeing net repair in the afternoon, but
it was clear I’d taken on a new stature in the group.
The next day at breakfast as we sat in our new spot next to
Adda, my kaelen made a brief chirp as we sat down. Adda gave me a
puzzled look.
“What is it?” I asked. I hadn’t recognized the sound.
She told me Dina would watch Dale while I was in the hut for
a few days. There seemed to be some sadness or disappointment in her
voice.
I was confused momentarily, until I checked my chronometer.
I’d lost track of time; my period was due to start, and if it was as
usual, would hit mid morning to mid afternoon. Then shock set in
when I realized my kaelen had recognized it before I was aware of it.
After our meal I told Dale I would be away with my period for
a few days. I comforted him as best I could. I told him I would
miss him, and he should rest up for my return.
I went and bathed in the small pond, where I had been
seemingly so much the last week or so, and found an unoccupied hut.
I lay down and my kaelen immediately started the chorus that would
relax my body. I let two of them do that, but picked up the third
and softly made the sound to sharpen my mind. He stood on my
forehead next to his brothers, his abdomen swaying. I listened to
the chorus and felt my body relax and my mind sharpen.
The kaelen knew when my period was approaching. Why weren’t
we awash in babies? What’s going on here? Who gives life? He does.
I wished I’d studied more xenobiology. Those feathery
antennae — commentators called them olfactory sensors. How about
pheromone sensors? It made sense; they had to detect as well as
generate.
Of course! They knew my period was approaching. They could
sense your state. They probably knew when you were fertile. They
could sense pheromones!
Oho. That made a lot of sense. I recalled the times we’d
spent rutting, exhausting Dale while I was blissed out flat on my
back. Yes, those dates correlated quite well with ovulation. The
damn bugs were trying to get me pregnant! I remembered back from my
briefings that the contraceptive which was given us didn’t suppress
ovulation, just the implanting of the fertilized egg along the
uterine wall. Still, the bugs were doing their damnedest to get me
knocked up! That’s why Adda seemed both sad and surprised when my
period arrived.
Okay, calm down. That explains some of it. But what about
accidents? Sperm could stay motile for some number of days. And the
unmarried women — they were having sex without kaelen present, as
far as I knew. Why didn’t they get pregnant? How far does the
control go? Okay, it’s reasonable to assume the kaelen could prevent
pregnancy. Could the kaelen influence sex of the offspring?
Interesting questions, but right now I was tired. I had the
opportunity to rest. I started making that sound they’d started when
I first lay down. Linguistically, its components were female, rest,
and something else with female characteristics.
I spent two and a half more blissful days in the hut. The
kaelen kept me too sleepy to decode any more of the mysteries of this
place. I knew now why there wasn’t violence, or adultery. Well, I
didn’t know why, but I did know what the mechanisms were that kept it
from happening. Thorough conditioning and bonding made it highly
unlikely. How had this symbiosis evolved? I wasn’t sure of that,but
I commanded the ship to notify me two days before I was likely to
ovulate next. I wanted to study this process in more detail.
Again, basic physics says that a stable dynamic system has a
gain element and a control element, and some of the energy of the
system is used to maintain that stability. It doesn’t matter if it’s
basic electronics, faster than light drive, or biological systems. I
could almost see Professor Conn pounding the desk as he repeated that
to us, so many years ago. What in this system was being sacrificed
to maintain stability? There was a price, and it was being paid.
How? With what? Why is this particular memory so important?
When I left the hut and bathed again I met Adda in the pool.
With some sadness she hugged me and asked how I was. I told her I
was fine. Once again she gave me a misty look and said, “You are far
away from home.” I nodded to her, but then answered, “I’m not sure,
mother.”
The next few weeks passed more or less uneventfully. Our
presence was changing things somewhat. The ancient physicist
Heisenberg proved that you cannot make measurements without
disturbing the system you are measuring. I was heralded as
discovering the sound that sharpened the mind. Dale had shown them
how to select different stones, and flake them to make better
implements. This helped in a number of areas, making cultivation
easier, making finer weaves possible for skirts and nets, better
shaping of wood for boats. He also made suggestions to fishing
strategies and crop cultivation that would improve things, though not
radically. We didn’t want to rock the boat severely.
Then one morning I got the reminder from the ship that
ovulation was approaching. At breakfast I spoke with Adda about
using one of the huts with the moss bedding. She smiled broadly, and
made arrangements for Dale to rest more that day. Even though we
were matriarchal, there was a male hierarchy as well. Dale’s
innovations, plus being mine, put him high in that hierarchy. That
had him doing more supervision these days than hauling of nets as
he’d done early on.
We had a peaceful dinner that evening. I bathed with Dale in
the small pool afterwards, and then took him to the moss hut chosen
for us.
As we were removing our skirts the kaelen started noisily. I
quickly quieted them; I wanted to at least start this, even if I
wouldn’t be in control.
Dale smiled at me and hugged me as we sank to our knees.
“Thank you,” he said. “Can we hold each other first? That
will make it easier to let go.”
I lay on the moss and said, “Of course.” I turned to my side
and pulled him to a nipple. He whimpered and started sucking. The
kaelen started the comforting sound and I let myself go to it.
I remember afterwards shifting into passion. I was on my
back again, my body so relaxed and heavy, so hard to move. I was so
hot, and needed him so much. And he filled me again and again.
There was a time when he was thrusting in and out of me and he was
practically crying, sobbing. I gathered what strength and control I
had and made the sleeping sound. My kaelen changed their tune and we
were soon asleep together.
When we woke in the morning they tried to get us right back
at it. I silenced them, at least for a moment. Dale sat up and I
started to do so as well. One of my kaelen, I’m not sure which one,
had sprung to my forehead and started making the sound to relax me.
It happened so suddenly, so intensely, that I didn’t have time to
stop him. My body fell back on the moss. I felt the three kaelen
moving across my body, feeding on my moisture, especially between my
legs. It tickled and I laughed.
I told Dale softly that they weren’t letting me off my back.
He looked over me smiling and said, “That doesn’t sound so bad to me.”
He held my head and gave me some juice, thick and syrupy,
followed by water. Then he lay down on top of me and we kissed. He
kissed me, caressing my head and neck with his hands. The damn bugs
don’t understand foreplay.
But they did leave us alone for a while, as Dale kissed and caressed my body.
Then he moved my legs apart and said, “Okay boys, you can
take over now.”
I laughed. One kaelen started the passionate rutting sound,
but another, I recognized him as the one I’d chosen as he hopped to
Dale’s head, started the comforting sound. The other two chimed in.
Dale smiled and sighed, sinking down to my breast. After a
while the kaelen changed their tune. I recognized them driving Dale
into a frenzy, and was momentarily surprised to recognize one sending
me off to sleep.
When I awoke it was mid morning at least. Dale woke soon
afterwards. He smiled, but looked concerned. “How are you?” he
whispered. He looked at the kaelen with trepidation, almost fear.
I pulled him to me. He resisted at first but soon melted
into me. “I’m fine,” I told him. I wiggled my hips and legs a bit.
“I may be a bit sore, but I don’t feel like it.”
The kaelen comforted us for a while. For some reason I
crooned over and over, “I love you,” as I held him to my breast,
moving his head slightly the way I know he loves.
We got up a while later. He carried me to the pool in his
wonderful strong arms. I put my kaelen on a branch and let him carry
me into the water, letting go in his arms.
We moved to the falls and he held me up. I was so relaxed in
his arms, but then I saw the look on his face: concern, fear.
“What is it darling? What’s the matter?’
He shook his head. “It’s them,” he said, nodding to the bank.
“The kaelen? What about them?”
He sighed and held me close. “They kept you asleep for a day
and a half. They ran me through cycles of making love and sleeping
in your arms.” He smiled a little. “I didn’t mind that; it was
intense. But at one point I was concerned. I started to shake you,
to wake you. I always thought they were slow creatures. But they
moved so fast! I’d hardly grabbed your shoulders when one was
spraying my face, and it felt as if another stung me on the back of
the neck. I collapsed on top of you. Then for hours I was sucking
at you, in bliss, unable to move. Eventually they took me back to
making love, but it was much more controlled. They brought me to
orgasm so quickly, and then collapsed me to your breast again, over
and over. They scare me.”
I held him to me. I started to make the comforting sound but
thought twice about it. Instead I cradled his head and rocked him
back and forth, back and forth. I felt along the back of his neck
gently and felt a small bump. “It’s okay darling, I’ve got you.
They thought they were protecting me. I’ll talk to Adda about it
right away. I’m sorry if they hurt you. Are you okay?”
He sniffled a little. He was looking more relaxed. Such
deep conditioning over just a few months — how powerful it must be
over a lifetime!
“I’m not hurt darling, just scared. The amount of power, of
control they have is incredible.”
I agreed wholeheartedly. We discussed the hypothesis that
they effectively controlled births, and were most emphatically trying
to get me pregnant. We laughed a little; we thought the ship still
held trump cards in that game. While rinsing I looked at the back of
his neck; he had the characteristic wheal of an insect sting.
We went to the bank. A few feet from the bank my kaelen
started acting agitated. We knew they wouldn’t go in the water. So
I stopped and held Dale, and we kissed, in front of them. They were
thrashing around on the branches like mad. One even jumped down and
rushed to the water’s edge. We got out slowly and they rushed me,
running up me to my shoulders and hair. They started chittering, but
I said firmly, “No!” waving my finger in front of them. They quieted
down. Then I pulled Dale to me again and we kissed.
“Is that better?” I asked him after a while.
We’d put our skirts back on, but I could still tell it was
better. He sighed his answer.
I took us around the other side of the pond to an area
frequented by the young unmarried folks. I’d seen a nice mossy
place, and I wanted to show both Dale and my kaelen that I still had
some control (I hoped).
The first place I wanted was most definitely occupied by a
couple I’d seen together for a while. I smiled; there might be
another making coming up. Dale squeezed my hand at the sight of the
two fit youngsters locked together on the moss.
Luckily the second place was unoccupied. We slipped off our
skirts and put them on the path to indicate to others this spot was
now taken.
He had a very nice erection for me. “On your back,” I whispered.
He lay down, looking at me expectantly. I straddled him. As
I remembered what he’d told me, coming quickly, I formed a sound. If
I was correct, he would be relaxed, blissful, and still hot and hard.
As I cooed the sound, the kaelen took it up, one hopping to his head,
waving his abdomen over Dale’s face. I ran my hands over his body as
he smiled and his eyes drifted closed. I picked the one off my left
shoulder and told it blissful easy release for me, and put it on my
head. I breathed deeply and felt myself grow wet. I slid on to my
husband and gently rocked us to ecstasy.
Afterwards I leaned down and pressed a nipple to his mouth.
The kaelen started the comforting sound. I’d expected that, and said
sharply, “No!” They quieted instantly. Then after a few seconds I
started the sound myself, moving over to hold him better. The kaelen
joined in and we were united in bliss again.
We woke and returned just in time for the evening meal.
While we both had pretty blissed out looks on our faces, when we sat
down next to Adda I gave her a frown and told her softly, “We need to
talk.”
After dinner Adda asked Dina to walk Dale back to our hut.
Dale smiled to me and nodded. Adda and I walked back over to our
mossy conversation area.
I told her what had happened, and how it had frightened Dale.
She asked what I’d done afterwards. When I told her she smiled and
said I’d done the right thing.
She then told me He recognized the power in our difference;
it was important for us to bear children. She told me she was
surprised I was not pregnant already. Then in great seriousness she
added, “If you cannot have Dale’s children, perhaps others can. You
are far from home, and these are our ways.”
I started making the comforting sound, as much for my benefit
as hers, but instead sharpened our minds. In that clarity I knew
what N/K had surmised: we could interbreed with the natives. I
didn’t mind Dale fathering children. But what about me? Did I mind
Dale fathering children, other than our own?
“Give us time,” I told her, “our journey was long.” I
thought of how long it would take to reverse the contraceptive
process. I remembered it was an implant. That would mean a return
to the ship, or at least high energy effector use.
I looked up at the sky, then back to her. “Our journey here
took almost a year in a small ship.” Then I did something that’s
called intuition in a professional, and wild guessing in anyone else.
“Having a child there would have been very difficult. Just as He
chooses when to give life, it was decided we should not have a child
at that time. This process takes time to undo.” (I actually said
something closer to “this knot takes time to untie.”)
She sighed and smiled, looking at the sky briefly, then back to me.
“If I cannot carry his child in the next few months, then we
can discuss again having Dale father others,” I told her.
Adda nodded and smiled. “Your journey was long. We will
give you the time you need. You have brought much to us.”
We hugged and went our separate ways. Dale was sitting in
the hut typing when I entered. We discussed part of my conversation.
I decided not to tell him about the other aspect at this time. We
held each other with ferocity, before I allowed the kaelen to lull us
to sleep.
Moths and Medicine
Part of our Survey training of course was in field medical
care. We were able to put this training to use, mostly dealing with
scrapes and bruises, occasionally with more serious incidents, mainly
falls and cuts. They didn’t have any idea of shock, or of
concussions, let alone of splinting broken bones. The kaelen helped
of course in accelerating the healing process and preventing
infection, probably through boosting the immune system. I also
learned which leaves were useful for what injuries, for controlling
bleeding, use as wound dressings, and the like. I’d become the
unofficial village medic.
One morning on our way to breakfast Dina gave me a lopsided
smile and frown, and told me I should keep a good supply of leaves
and such handy; we’d be seeing a lot of injuries.
“Why?” I asked her.
She gave me a bemused smile, then gave a fleeting glimpse up
at the sky, her way of saying to me I was far from home. Then she
said, “The flutter-giggles are returning.”
I know I gave her a puzzled look. She gave me an exasperated
sigh, then smiled and laughed.
“I’ll show you after breakfast. You should show your husband
later this afternoon.”
I’ll wander into Dale’s field of ecology for a bit. While
there are gaping holes in the ecology where even I would expect a
species to fill, we did have flying insects and birds. All the other
insect life we’d been exposed to so far was devoid of the pheromone
producing capabilities of the kaelen.
At breakfast we saw quite a lot of giggling among the teens,
especially the girls. The boys were smiling as well, looking forward
to something.
“Is this part of a mating ritual?” I asked Dina quietly as we
were eating.
She choked momentarily, but recovered quickly. She and Adda
were getting used to my outlandish questions.
“Yes,” she said after a moment, “you could say that it is. I
hadn’t thought of it that way, but this is often what ties the final
knot.”
Now I was more puzzled. “So why the injuries?” As I looked
around I saw one girl who seemed to have a bump on her head.
Dina laughed. “You will soon see.”
After breakfast the teens dispersed quickly, mostly in pairs.
I watched Tala take the young man she’d been with for quite a while.
Tala had quite the look on her face, and so did the young man.
Dale grumbled to me that it was practically a holiday; the
only people he could count on to work this morning were the older
married men, and even they’d be taking off this afternoon. I hugged
him and gave him a kiss before he headed off.
Dina led me around by the pools. I noticed pale yellow moths
everywhere, usually with people chasing them.
“Those are the flutter-giggles?” I asked (I’ll call them
moths from now on).
Dina nodded. “Yes, let’s go around the other side.”
We hurried to the other side of the pool, along the area Dale
and I called “lover’s lane,” for its secluded mossy patches in the
shade.
Dina stopped along the path and told me. “Cup your hands
together like this, then breathe.”
She cupped her hands together, shook them a few times
vigorously, then put her nose in between her thumbs and inhaled
deeply and quickly. I followed suit; we practiced a few times.
Behind us we could hear the sounds of teens having fun.
We went to one of the mossy areas. As we were going in the
path, Dina said quickly, “Catch one in your hands!” as she spied some
of the moths sitting about shoulder level on some vegetation.
We both quickly caught a moth each. I started to shake mine,
but Dina said, “No, sit down first. That’s why they get hurt.”
I sat down on the soft moss. Dina motioned me more to the
middle of the mossy area.
“Now!” she said, “Follow me!”
She shook her hands vigorously; I did the same. Then she
stuck her nose between her thumbs and inhaled sharply. I did the
same.
I was filled with a strange aroma that soon had me seeing
intense colors and turned my muscles to jelly. As I slipped to the
ground the synesthesia exploded in me, mixing my senses with strong
hallucinations, combined with an intense orgasm.
Sometime later I propped myself up on one elbow. “Wow, some
defense mechanism!” I thought to myself. I felt very good. About
seven minutes had passed by my chronometer. Now I knew how the
injuries occurred, and why Dina insisted we sit down. I looked over
at her.
She was still on her back, a dreamy smile on her face. One of her
kaelen was on her shoulder, the others were sitting in branches
nearby.
Her skirt was partially up, and the scent of her arousal hit
me. My mouth started watering and I moved on my elbows to between
her legs. I was still weak and wobbly. I hadn’t eaten a woman since
our wild departure party over a year and a half ago.
I put my hands under her bottom and pulled her to me on the
moss. I buried my face in her, enjoying her taste and her smell.
Some of the synesthesia was still with me, as the sensations crossed
over to other senses, feeling her taste and smell on my skin.
Soon I heard her moaning as she moved weakly on the moss.
Her moans increased and soon she was shuddering through the first of
many orgasms as I enjoyed her hungrily.
Finally I pushed myself up to sitting. I know I had a
satisfied smile as I looked down on Dina. She gave me that look of
wonder again, albeit a satiated look of wonder. I extended a hand
and helped pull her to sitting.
As she looked at me, I asked, “That was new to you?”
She laughed and nodded. “Oh yes, very new.”
I couldn’t believe it. “Your husband doesn’t do that for you?”
She laughed again. “He will.”
We both laughed together. It took a while of precise
questioning for me to tentatively conclude that oral sex was unknown
to them. So was masturbation. As I contemplated this, I felt insect
legs moving on me once more, and the sensation of little tongues on
my skin. I watched the same on Dina.
I was amazed. These things are so intimately involved in the
sexual cycle! Is it even possible for these people to experience
arousal without kaelen assistance? That would be another part of the
puzzle as to why we weren’t awash in babies.
It took me a while to phrase the question in a manner in
which she could understand, but they did have arousal without the
kaelen, although not very often. If I understood her correctly, the
men especially needed some stimulus to get them going. I guessed
that once started, their conditioning would take over.
Dina went on to explain that many people, mostly teens, would
catch as many moths as they could during the period of a few days
there were around, going through the cycle of catching, collapsing,
recovering almost continuously. They would do this singly, in pairs,
in groups.
The older ones though, the ones close to making their
selection of mates, played a different game. There it was common for
the man and woman to go together to a place such as this. They’d
both catch moths. The woman would take the full effect of the
creature. The man would take just a little, so he didn’t collapse,
and begin intercourse. The woman would recover to a wild ride.
Doing this with a man was a sign of commitment. After making love in
this manner, they’d usually catch another moth each, and enjoy them
fully together, collapsing in each other’s arms.
Then she gave me a serious look and said that this also went
on with married women. This was the only time when a woman could ask
another man, married or not, to go with her.
I sucked air momentarily as I considered her statement. So
there was adultery, and it was permitted under these narrow
circumstances. Then I smiled and laughed a little. There was
adultery and it would be practiced with my husband.
“Do you want him?” I asked.
Dina laughed. “No, I don’t play that way.”
Then she looked serious again. “But others want him. It is
up to you. You need to teach him. You can say no; he is your
husband.”
I smiled and laughed again. Dale would like this game.
“I’ll teach him, right here if I can.” I felt my nostrils flare as I
sucked in a breath. He would feel so good. “And he’ll do to me what
I did to you.”
Dina asked me quite without embarrassment or concern how to
teach her husband to eat her. I gave her a lesson in female anatomy,
causing some quite strong physical reactions with the touch of my
fingers, and described how she should teach him.
After that lesson Dina asked if I’d like another moth. I
laughed and told her we should head back; I wanted to share the next
one with my husband. I was sure he’d get to share many in the next
few days.
We stopped along the edge of the small pool; I washed my face.
As I bent over to the water, my kaelen scampered down my back
and into my skirt, avoiding the water, as they usually do.
Another question formed in my mind. Every time I started
becoming intimate with Dale, our kaelen would respond in some way.
Yet when I’d gone down on Dina, they’d remained quiet. They
evidently didn’t consider that sexual conduct I guess. The thought
of doing that to Dina again, with the kaelen bringing us to easy
release, my nipples sliding along that soft moss, got me wet again;
it was certainly sexual to me! And yet kneeling over the pool,
knowing how wet I’d become at that thought, my bugs remained quiet.
When I stood up, they scampered up my hair onto my shoulders again,
there to remain silent.
We passed groups of young ones in various states of
consciousness. We saw a number of pairs in different stages of the
dance. Then we came to the large pool.
As we rounded the corner, I saw a group about twenty meters
away, again in various states of consciousness. One of the girls sat
up slowly and let out a horrible scream, the first noise of that kind
I’d heard on the planet. Then I saw why; a boy was laying face down
in the water. The others just sat or lay there.
I ran over quickly and pulled the youngster out of the water.
It was clear he’d inhaled standing and fallen unconscious into the
pool. How long ago? I flipped him to his back as I felt for a
carotid pulse and listened for respiration. What did that damn moth
do to metabolism? Since a couple of the other kids in the group were
still out cold, he must have been like this only a short while.
He had a slow pulse, but no breathing. I pinched a nail bed
on a finger; it stayed bluish. This was not good. I positioned his
head to open the airway and gave him a rescue breath; it didn’t go
in. I remembered from my training that most drowning is caused by a
very small amount of fluid. I gave him a shake, repositioned, and
tried again, this time with more force.
I got chest rise, and a little chest fall with gurgling
noises. I put another big breath into him.
I was rewarded with violent coughing. I pulled him over on
to my knees and let him cough up water. He was gasping for breath
and coughing. To me it was a wonderful sign.
He tried to get up but I held him. The kaelen started making
the comforting sound. I quickly said, “No!” I didn’t want him
sedated or depressed in any way — I wanted the full force of panic
to reoxygenate him.
I remembered the sound the kaelen had made to wake Adda in
the hut, and its effects on me. I guessed at the male specific
version of that sound and made it. It didn’t affect me, but with my
three kaelen making the sound, and Dina’s three, it certainly
affected my drowning victim and his male cohorts. Soon I was having
to hold on to him as he was breathing rapidly; I could see his pulse
beating rapidly and strongly in his neck.
I turned him to his back and held his shoulders down. “Relax
and lie there,” I told him, looking at his eyes. He was quite
confused still. I moved my head back and forth, allowing the
sunlight to hit his eyes and watching the reaction of his pupils.
They seemed equal and responsive. Good, that pointed away from major
brain damage. His male counterparts were all awake now, and standing
with the girls. All were chattering wildly.
I turned to Dina. “Move them away a bit and calm them down,
please,” I asked her. She nodded and stood up.
As I watched my charge, I stilled my kaelen. The boy’s
system was still on high, which is what I wanted, pushing oxygen
through his system. Dina managed to get the others moved back a bit;
I heard the calming sound come from her, and all our kaelen started
to reply.
I overruled mine with the male specific variant of the sound.
Soon my recovering victim started relaxing, even sagging. “You’re
still with us, my friend,” I told him. “He was watching over you
this day.”
I sat him up and held him to me, his head between my breasts.
I was still running on adrenaline as well; this didn’t excite me
sexually.
A larger crowd had gathered. Dina kept them at bay as best
she could. I stood up, and helped the boy stand. He was about
fourteen or so, I’d guess. He’d be a handsome man, thanks to me.
We walked over to his companions. They all looked
tranquilized, as did he to a certain extent.
I turned him so he was facing me and said in a clear voice
for his companions to hear, “You will grow up to be a strong and
handsome man — if you are more careful than you were today.” I
looked over them all; they looked shocked. Good.
I turned and walked away from them slowly, pressing my hands
on my skirt to keep my hands from shaking. I walked to Dina and the
crowd. Adda and a few other elders pressed to the front.
Adda asked, “What happened?”
I smiled, trying to look calm and relaxed. “One of them had
a mishap with a flutter-giggle. He will be fine.”
I walked through the crowd as if nothing had happened. I
could hear Dina giving the more detailed explanations behind me, how
he’d been face down in the water, and I’d kissed him to life.
I stopped to consider. What should I do?
I turned to the group again and spoke to Dina. “Dina, are you a fish?”
The crowd laughed nervously. Dina said, “No,” with a smile.
“Can you breathe water?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Neither can he,” I said, pointing at the young man, now
sitting on the ground with his friends.
“When he fell into the water, he tried to breathe water. He
couldn’t. Some water stuck in his throat, and that stopped the air
from getting in. I didn’t kiss him, I blew air into him.” I took a
deep breath and exhaled noisily, demonstrating. “That moved the
water, and he started to breathe again. This is one of the things we
know. I can teach you.” I used an exclusive form of “we,” excluding
myself from the group around me, playing on my strength as an
outsider.
That seemed to satisfy the crowd. They began to disperse.
Adda and Dina walked with me back to the center, putting their arms
around me. The comforting sound started and I did nothing to stop it.
We sat in the shade between Dina’s and my hut. I’d calmed
down again, at least partially.
Adda stepped away from us. She returned a while later. When
I looked up, I was surprised to see most of the elders gathered. One
of them spoke. “You took the boy away from Him.” It was an
accusation, and a dangerous one.
I smiled and shook my head. “No, that is not something I can
do. He used me, and the boy, to teach a lesson. Maybe they will be
more careful now in their play with the flutter-giggles.”
My accuser smiled a little. I saw I’d done well with many of
the others. “I told the boy that he would grow to be a strong,
handsome man — if he was more careful,” I told her with a smile.
My accuser smiled a little more and nodded. She looked to Adda.
Adda looked to me and said, “You are from far away. You have
much to teach us.”
I sighed and shook my head. “I have so much to learn from
you, and so little to teach.”
That seemed to satisfy them; the group dispersed, with Adda
sitting with us again.
Sharing, and Sharing
Dale arrived with a group of men a while later. He sat next
to me as the rest dispersed to their usual places. He gave me a
wild, smiling, confused look.
“Had a good morning?” I asked.
“You must have, from what I heard,” he told me.
“What did you hear?”
He lapsed softly into our native tongue and whispered, “You
saved a kid’s life.”
I nodded a little, then changed the subject. “Have you met
the flutter-giggles?”
He laughed a bit and shook his head side to side. “No, but
I’ve seen what they do. A few in my crew couldn’t resist.” He
looked around a bit. “And on the way back, I got some very
interesting offers.”
I put a hand on his thigh and laughed. “Well, I’ll introduce
you after lunch, and we’ll talk about some of those offers.”
It was an odd meal. Not because of the food, which was the
same as we usually had, but due to the wide range of expression in
the gathered people. The range went from intoxication and joy,
through lust, to some still quite somber. I hadn’t met the parents
of the youngster I’d saved earlier; I wondered if I would.
Some people ate and dispersed quickly, especially those who
disappeared in pairs. We had a number of women, both married and
unmarried, walk by and give Dale the eye. A couple of them were
quite striking. I could tell Dale was interested.
I wasn’t sure how this worked in detail, so I leaned over to
Dina and whispered, “Does this sharing go for both unmarried and
married women, or just the married ones?”
She smiled and answered in kind, “Usually just the married ones.”
Dale and I had finished our lunch. I took his hand as I
stood up, and tucked it into my skirt. “Why don’t we take a walk,” I
told him with a smile.
He hopped to his feet. Dina giggled a little. “Be careful,” she sang.
I laughed as I walked toward the pond, my husband in tow.
As we walked we saw groups of people, teens especially,
already enjoying themselves. From Dale’s reaction, he’d already seen
some of this.
We walked around to lover’s lane. The first two spots I’d
have liked were well occupied. We arrived at another choice spot at
about the same time as Tala and her boyfriend. When Tala saw us, she
giggled and turned quickly, taking her boyfriend off by the hand.
We dropped our skirts on the path to give others notice.
Moths abounded in the mossy area; they too liked the coolness and the
shade.
I caught a moth in my hands and sat down on the moss; Dale
did the same. I liked the approach Dina had used; go for it.
“Follow me,” I said.
With that I shook the moth in my hands and stuck my nose
between my thumbs. When Dale took a deep breath, I did the same.
I let myself down to the soft moss, feeling Dale fall on to me.
There’s something to be said for synesthesia, that confusion
and overlap of the senses. The synesthesia we experience in those
few moments when an AI is mapping and establishing direct neural
connections is intense and can be terrifying. This was so
comfortable, riding on that sexual wave, everything overlapping and
combining. Especially the way it tapered off, leaving some overlap
to luxuriate in, as I felt my husband at my breast once more.
As he started to suckle I heard my kaelen start up. I shook
myself awake and quickly said, “No!” quieting them. Then I helped
Dale sit up.
“Some defense mechanism, no?” I asked him.
He laughed, still a little spaced. “Very good. I wouldn’t
want to harm them.” He looked around and saw a few more. “Ready to
go again?”
I took one of his hands. I explained the couple’s game to
him, the woman taking a deep breath, the man taking a slight one, and
ravishing her. His “interest” perked up immediately at that.
Then I told him what I’d done with Dina that morning, going
down on her, and learning that this was unknown to them. He was as
surprised as I had been. We talked a bit about possible
implications, and he quickly reached similar conclusions to mine,
broaching similar questions. During this process, his “interest”
waned.
That brought me to explaining some of the offers he’d gotten,
and giving him my permission to accept the offers from married women
if he wished. That got his interest up again, quickly.
But he looked me in the eye, smiled, and said, “But right now
I want you.”
I looked him in the eye and asked, “And later?”
He laughed, and I joined in. He said, “I’ll think about it.
But I’m yours; please keep me.”
I saw motion out of the corner of my eye and reached out with
both hands to grab a moth. Dale grabbed for one as I shook mine. He
caught his and started agitating it as I took that deep breath,
letting myself down on my back on the soft fragrant moss.
After floating through that space for a while I was enveloped
by a velvet tongue, plunging me once again into orgasm. I was
enveloped by a deep blue velvet tongue, smelling of cinnamon and man
scent, the blue velvet feeling all over my skin, washing me in waves
of sensation, of pleasure. My voice shook me pink and jasmine as he
slid into me, surrounding me from the inside and outside. Our lips
met in greens and blues, softness and humming as he slid in and out
like the surf, carrying me on waves of sensation. I crinkled and
gathered together as I approached the edge, letting go into softness
and colors again, colors punctuated by bursts of green as I felt his
seed pumping into me.
I felt him move again to my breast. Electricity shot through
me as he latched on. The power of his sucking brought my entire
being into my nipple. Somewhere I felt and heard the kaelen start in
again, taking us into comfort.
We sat up slowly sometime later, helping each other. We
hugged and said, “I love you.” I giggled as I felt my chorus skitter
between my legs to feast.
I sighed and looked up at the sun. An hour or so had passed.
“Shall we go to the pool? We should share this place,” I suggested.
He nodded and buried his head in my hair.
As I stood my entourage went back to my shoulders and hair.
We put on our skirts and walked back to the pool. There were a
number of couples in the water, some splashing and playing, but most
moving slowly together, seemingly in postcoital bliss. I hung our
skirts and kaelen on a convenient place and we waded in.
“How was that?” I asked him.
He nuzzled my neck as he carried me over to the falls. “I
was going to ask you the same.”
“Mmmmm…” said it all.
We washed and swam for a while. We’d taught them a few new
swimming strokes over the months. They’d been amazed the first time
Dale did the backstroke, and couldn’t believe the butterfly.
As more people started arriving, we moved to get out.
“Going to accept any invitations?” I asked with a nuzzle in his ear.
“Going to make any?” He asked, hands around my waist.
I laughed. “I hadn’t even thought of it,” I told him truthfully.
He looked at me. I told him, “But you should, with the
married women, a couple of them.”
He raised an eyebrow, smiling a little. I hadn’t told him my
conversation with Adda on having children. This would be a good
introduction. “Really, you should.”
He gave me a little more of a smile and said, “If you insist.”
I laughed and hugged him to me. “Oh you men! Don’t worry,
you’re mine and you’re not getting away. You can play for a few
days, but remember you’re mine.”
“How could I forget,” he whispered hotly in my ear.
We got out and retrieved our skirts and kaelen. I noticed a
few women noticing my husband. He is, as they say, better hung than
most. I laughed and tucked his hand into my skirt, and started to
our hut. We still had a couple of hours until the evening meal.
But he tugged me the other way. Yielding, I let him lead me
inland and uphill some, off on the way to the cultivated fields. We
went along another path, climbing higher on the hill.
We crossed one of the streams that fed the small falls, then
turned uphill a little. There by the edge of the stream was another
mossy shady spot.
I gave him an accusing look. “Been here before, have you?”
He laughed and blushed a little. “Only alone,” he said,
kissing my hand. Then he reached up and caught a moth. I did the
same. We sat down, then shook our temporary captives vigorously,
giggling as we did so; they were well named. He put his nose into
his hands and took a deep breath. He looked up in surprise to see me
release mine to the wind, then put my arms around him as he started
collapsing. I held him to my breast and suckled him, moving his head
around, telling him how much I loved him and how lucky I was.
After a few minutes I moved him to his back and started
stroking his cock to life. When he was ready I certainly was, and I
impaled myself on him. We both moaned as we slid together.
Remembering what I’d felt, I ran my hands over his body as I
rocked gently. Some soft touches along his abdomen, then along his
thighs behind me, elicited moaningand quivering.
I rocked along gently, keeping myself on the edge, until I
saw his eyes start to open. Then I leaned forward, put a nipple into
his mouth, and started rocking in earnest. He moaned more and bucked
underneath me. I came, and as I struggled to keep from falling over,
felt him coming inside me.
One of my kaelen, my chosen, was still on my shoulder. The
other two were sitting on nearby branches. I started the sound to
comfort just my husband. My chosen echoed me, and the other two
quickly scrambled to me to join in. As I held his head to my breast
I felt him soften. I quieted the kaelen and then said, “Sleep
darling, sleep darling.”
I rocked him until his breathing shifted again. I let go of
him and swung myself off, sitting on the moss and looking out, down
at the pool and part of the village below us. One of the moons was
up. I looked straight up for the stationary sparkle that was our
ship. Then I remembered and laughed to myself; synchronous orbits
are equatorial. Where’s the equator from here? I had the ship put a
targeting reticule in my vision. I turned and looked, seeing a faint
spot of light in the target image. There was our ship, our link with
our civilization, our home. What was to be her fate? She could stay
in orbit for many decades, continuing her preassigned studies,
sending back a message torpedo every two to five years.
I sighed. It was only a few months until we reached that two
year point, two years gone from our base, almost a year on planet.
We should work on our reports so we’d have something to show for our
time besides mounds of meteorological and geophysical data.
I gave my chosen the sound to sharpen my mind and started
working on this report again. Still so many questions, so many
things we don’t understand. And it’s the same with Dale — so many
holes in the ecology, with the primary conclusion being that this
symbiotic structure had been stable for quite a while.
I worked for a while, absorbed in my work, until I felt a
hand on my shoulder. I sighed, closed my connection, and turned to
my husband. He was sitting up, with a tear in his eye.
“What’s the matter?” I asked as I wiped it away. A kaelen
skittered down my arm and took the drop off my fingertip.
He laughed a little. “Nothing. I come up here to think, to
work on my studies. Like to see something?” he asked with a smile.
I nodded. He turned and picked up a rock. I’d noticed there
were rocks in this spot that didn’t look like they belonged here.
The one he had, held in two hands, was a section a few feet on a
side, split from something larger. He flipped it over and I gasped.
“Recognize it?” he asked.
It was the fossilized outline of an insect. “It looks like
the female, but it’s so big!” The fossil outline was partial but
covered most of the insect. When alive, this thing had to have been
eighteen inches long!
I looked at Dale in awe. “Where did you find it?”
“Oh, up in the hills. I have crews looking for interesting
rocks for me all the time. They found it a few weeks ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded.
He laughed a little. “I was going to, but it was the first
night of your ovulation. You distracted me.”
I laughed and he laughed along with me.
“What others? Any males?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not yet, at least not a complete one.
I’ve seen some sections that can’t be moved with male specimens that
are relatively the same size. One spot must have hundreds all packed
together.”
“Hive?” I speculated.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Good a guess as any. I think
this answers my question as to predator species.”
I shivered at the thought.
“Oh, and they had wings,” he added with a tight grin.
Now I was shocked. The vision of these creatures, with the
ability to fly… With their breeding pattern, no wonder there were
gaps in mammalian life forms. A hive of these things could and
probably did hunt host animals to extinction.
And my God, if one larva that size wouldn’t mean certain
death to a human, two would, from the blood they’d consume. “What
about their prey, ah, hosts?”
“I’d call ’em prey. Don’t know,” he said, “Wouldn’t want to
be around then.”
“But then how…” I thought out loud.
He smiled again. “How did both species evolve? How did the
symbiosis evolve? Tell me, oh anthropologist, with a symbiosis such
as this, how did the humans develop a spoken language? Why
cultivated crops?”
I shook my head in wonder. “I don’t know, I don’t know.” I
know I was smiling again. Such wonderful puzzles!
He sighed and stood up. “We’d best head down for dinner.
I’ve had the ship looking at surface and subsurface rock formations
in the general area, looking especially for likely fossil sites.”
“And?” I asked, putting on my skirt.
He shrugged again. “There are a few within a hundred clicks or so.”
I laughed. We’d have to investigate; I knew that.
Dinner was pretty jovial. Tala seemed very well laid, as did
Dina. Well, so did I come to think of it.
Early on a woman I’d seen before but didn’t know came over to
us and very formally gave us some very nice fruit. I accepted it and
thanked her. She bowed and left without a word. I gave Dina a
puzzled look. She leaned over and whispered to me, “The boy’s
mother.” Ah, that explained it. I shared the fruit with our group.
A while later a very attractive woman came over and sat in
front of us. She looked at Dale, then me. I smiled, then nodded.
She acted as if I’d just saved her life; her shoulders must have
dropped two inches as she exhaled.
She very calmly asked Dale if he would like to see the
flutter-giggles with her.
Dale looked at me, then at her and said, “Not tonight, I’m sorry.”
She looked heartbroken, until he said, “What about tomorrow
after breakfast?”
She lit up; her nipples crinkled up. She thanked us politely and left.
When she was out of earshot Tala and Dina both laughed. I
patted my husband on the leg. “That was very good of you.”
He gave me a confused smile. “What?”
I just smiled back and looked at the ladies; we laughed together.
After dinner on the way back to our hut he was propositioned
again, and set up an assignation for the afternoon. When that young
lovely skipped happily off into the distance I squeezed his bum and
told him, “You’d better save some for me.”
He laughed and threw his arms around me, hugging me. When we
got to our hut we noticed it had been lined with moss. We had earned
someone’s gratitude.
We spent quite a bit of time that evening working on reports,
using the kaelen to keep our minds sharp. When I realized it was
after eleven at night I called an end to that. We curled up together
and I let my crew comfort us and take us off to sleep.
I knew it was a dream. I was running, and it was so hard, my
legs didn’t want to move, yet I had to move, and move fast. They
were after me. I looked over my shoulder and saw two of them, huge
males, a meter or more long, flying noisily toward me. I knew they’d
gotten Dale already. I had to protect my children, especially our
son. They were more important than my safety; protect my children,
my son. It was so hard to run, so hard to move my legs. I started
clawing with my arms, trying to move faster. I felt one getting
closer. I could imagine the stinger extending outward, knowing a
female was moving slowly along toward us. He got closer and
closer…. The children….
I woke up screaming incoherently. Dale held me and hugged
me. I felt my kaelen drop from their usual nighttime nesting spot in
the thatch down on to me, and it was all I could do to keep from
screaming again and flinging them away. My heart was pounding. They
skittered up to my shoulders and head and started the comforting
sound.
I quickly said, “No!” and stopped them. I held Dale, I held him tight.
“I’ve got you, you’re okay, what was it?”
I was still panting with fear. “A dream, a very bad dream,”
I told him.
He surprised me by starting the comforting sound; he did it
pretty well for a man. The kaelen picked up on it after a moment,
but I silenced them. “Not yet,” Isaid. “Hold me please. I need to
be held.”
We lay down and he held me close. I curled up in his arms,
for the first time in a long long while. I finally started to calm
down. The crew started moving around, picking up what moisture there
was to be had on my body. I knew it had been a dream, but still my
skin was crawling.
I went back to pre-planetfall training and started my
breathing exercises to calm my body and mind. With every inhale I
calm the body and the mind. With every exhale I smile. Focus on the
present moment. This is the only moment.
It worked, as it had worked for me for years. I felt Dale’s
breathing, slow and shallow; he’d gone back to sleep. I sighed. My
chorus started a sleepy time song. I didn’t interrupt them.
I woke a little before dawn and used the chamber pot. Then I
held Dale close, comforting both of us. We got up later and walked
to breakfast.
“Want to tell me what it was about?” he asked, arm around me,
protecting me, as we walked along.
I shuddered a little. “I’ll tell you before lunch; I’ll meet
you by the pool. You’ll need to bathe.”
He laughed a little and gave me a hug.
We were a little early for breakfast, but food was set out
for us when we arrived. Adda soon joined us. I saw Dale’s morning
assignation watching us from a distance.
“I know where our breakfast came from,” I told him, nodding
my head her way.
He smiled nervously and ate quickly. It was funny.
“Don’t eat so fast. You’ll have plenty of time to play,” I
chided him. I thought Adda and a few nearby women were going to
choke from laughing with their mouths full.
He finished eating quickly. I was taking my time this
morning, not sure what I’d do; probably go play with moths.
He gave me an expectant look. I laughed and hugged him to
me. “You can go now. Remember, play nice.”
He gave me a strong hug and whispered, “Thank you — I love
you,” in my ear. He stood up and started walking to the pools. The
young lady with the gleam in her eye met him along the way and
practically dragged him off.
I sighed and looked at Adda. She smiled with me. Then she
said, “You had trouble last night?”
I nodded. Huts have thin walls, and I made a lot of noise,
and a noise quite uncommon around here. “A dream.”
She gave me a look of concern. “About your home?”
“No, about things that have not happened.”
We let it drop as Tala dragged in. She looked beat. I’d
saved her some of the fruit we’d been given, and offered it to her as
she sat down. She gave me a half smile.
“Where is your boyfriend?” I asked her, surprised to see her
alone this morning.
She gave me a half smirk. “Where is yours?” she riposted.
I chuckled. “The same place?”
She nodded and laughed with me. I put a hand on her
shoulder. She sighed.
As we finished eating I turned to Tala once again. “What are
you doing this morning?” she seemed troubled, uncertain somehow.
She smiled at the question. “Could we talk?” she asked.
“Of course.”
She looked around. Evidently she wanted a more private
place. I nodded to her and stood up.
She stood and we took our leave of the other women. We
started walking, pausing on the path to the pools. Neither of us was
particularly interested in that area.
“I know just the place,” I told her, and led her back to the
hillside spot Dale showed me the day before.
She liked the view, as did I. I was glad Dale put the fossil
pieces away before we headed down yesterday. They would take a lot
of explaining, especially since I didn’t have the answers to the
questions they posed.
While there were plenty of moths around, Tala didn’t pay them
any attention. Instead after sitting down she began rambling,
talking about growing up, not knowing her mother, and being raised by
Adda and other friends. She talked about her boyfriend, how serious
she was, doubting how serious he was.
Something clicked in me. I turned her to look at me. She
initially avoided my gaze, but then looked me in the eye and gave me
a nervous smile.
“Tala, would you like me to act as your mother?”
Her face lit up and she threw her arms around me, hugging me.
She started going on about knowing I would understand but not knowing
how to ask, and on and on until I started my kaelen comforting us. I
held her and rocked her gently. She slid down a bit as she relaxed.
I gave her a nipple. As she suckled gently she sighed and relaxed
even more.
“Tala, you helped me greatly. I will be happy to help you,
if He allows it, if they allow it. I will help you.”
As I held her and rocked her I thought more of what she was
asking of me. Did I give her the final “test,” or had she already
done that? I would take her to choose a kaelen. I would sit outside
the hut while she “made” her husband. She would undoubtedly acquire
at least one other. And then I would be called upon to start the
next cycle. Even with the kaelen comforting us, that thought and my
dream sent a chill through me. Was the dream a warning against just
this? I didn’t think so. I felt it was an omen, but of something
still in the future.
I held Tala closer to me, rocking her. Her pretty face was
relaxed in bliss. I held her for a while longer, then sighed and
helped her sit. As she let go of my nipple it struck me that the
experience hadn’t been strongly erotic for me; I was comforting her,
mothering her. That was opening a new set of very deep feelings in
me.
Tala sat up and gave me a dreamy look. We both sighed in
unison, then laughed together.
“Better now?” I asked her, caressing a cheek.
“Yes, mother,” she said softly.
“Only if He allows it, if they allow it. I’ll talk to Adda
as soon as I can. When do you want to make your husband?”
The question seemed to take her by surprise, even though it
felt entirely predictable to me.
“After the flutter-giggles are gone,” she said.
“And until then?” I asked.
She grinned and spun around, catching a moth. She held her
hands out to me and transferred it to my hands. Then she caught
another for herself. We giggled together as we shook them, sliding
more to the middle of the mossy area. I looked at her, then closed
my eyes, brought my hands to my face, and took a deep breath.
Oh I’m glad these things only appear once a year, I thought
as I returned slowly to the world. We sat up again.
As we looked at each other, Tala frowned.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You are older, much older,” she said, “Sometimes it shows in
your eyes, in the way you speak.” We looked to be just a few
biological years apart in age, I in my late teens.
“Yes,” I said softly. Suddenly I did feel older.
“How old are you?” she asked.
I smiled to her. “Do you really want to know?”
She thought in silence for a moment, shadows of thoughts
washing across her face before she said, “Dina told me you were from
far away. Yes, I want to know.”
I took her hands. “We were born far away from here, and our
ways are different. We came here to live as you live, to learn what
you learn. I have seen about as many seasons as Adda.”
That seemed to shock her, but not much. She looked out at
the sky. There were a few clouds in the distance. I expect she was
looking for one of the moons. “How far away?” she asked.
I sighed as she looked at me once more. “Farther than that.
Farther than you have words to say. Our ship took almost a year to
get us here.”
“Can I see your ship? Did you build it? Can you build
others?” she asked rapidly.
“Our ship was built for us, and we cannot build another.
Perhaps you will see it one day, but not soon.”
She sighed. “You know so many things.”
I laughed a little and shook my head. “I know different
things. If I were a fish who had just grown arms and legs and could
now breathe the air, I’d know many things about living in the sea,
but I wouldn’t know how to make bread. Or a husband. There are many
things I want to learn, many things for you to teach me.”
She nodded. After a while she asked, “Will you leave us?
Will you go home?”
I shook my head again. “I don’t know. Where is home? Home
is where your family is. Here I have a husband, a mother, and now my
sister has become my daughter.”
I saw the tears form in her eyes, and felt them forming in
mine. We hugged quietly. A new world of feelings was opening up
inside me.
She gave me another squeeze and sat back. “Thank you mother.
We should go.”
I gave her one more hug before we stood up. We headed back
down the hill.
We paused by the large pool. I looked in the water for Dale;
it was still a while until lunch, but I didn’t see him. Tala saw her
boyfriend and smiled. Then she turned to me and gave me a
questioning look.
“Go get your man. Dale is to meet me here before lunch. He
must still be playing.”
Tala laughed and gave me a hug. “We will find him,” she
said, and skipped off to her man.
I watched them hug as they met. Then they walked off hand in
hand along one of the paths.
I sat in contemplation, thinking of my role here, my multiple
roles. As I was lost in thought I felt a presence and looked up to
see Adda sitting down next to me. She smiled.
“Where is your husband?” she asked. By custom, these
assignations were to be fairly brief.
“He must still be playing,” I told her. Then I took her hand
and said seriously “Tala wants me to act as her mother. I want to as
well. Is this permitted?”
She gave me another of her beatific smiles, then a warm hug.
“Yes, I will tell the others. We were not sure she would ask; we
were not sure you would accept. Do you know what this means?”
“No, but does anyone know the first time? I owe it to you,
to Tala, to Dina.”
“That is a good answer,” she said with a somber smile. She
got up and walked quickly away.
I wondered if she would talk to Tala, and in how much detail.
I’d asked Tala, not the other way around. Was I ready for this? I’d
answered that question already; was anyone? There was only one way
to find out. It was just a dream, after all.
I saw Dina, Adda, and some other women come by a while later
and fan out. A few minutes later Dina returned with Dale in tow. As
they got to the edge of the pool, Dina took his skirt and he walked,
almost sleepwalked, into the water. I stood and removed both skirt
and kaelen. Dina met me halfway to the water.
“I rescued him,” she said with a laugh in her voice. “I’ll
wait for you.”
I waded in; the water felt good, as it always does. I caught
up to him and hugged him. When he hugged me he had a ferocious
hunger in his hands, but weakness in his arms. I led him to deeper
water, holding him.
“What happened?” I asked.
He laughed weakly. “It was the bugs again. Things started
out as you had said. We found a cozy spot. She took a moth and I
took a little whiff of mine; not too much, but enough I thought. I
decided to give her a real thrill, so when I woke up I went down on
her. You should have heard her, maybe you did. But when I slid into
her, her bug took over. It was like one of our rutting sessions.
She was flat on her back, and the bug was running me through cycles
of coming in her and collapsing. It was intense. Dina rescued me.”
I held his head, pretty much supporting him as we moved to
the falls. “Poor boy,” I cooed to him.
He gave me a tired laugh. We rinsed our hair and moved
slowly back to the shore.
We put on our skirts. Tala and Dina helped us comb out our
hair. Dale thanked Dina for rescuing him. She laughed.
“Where is his playmate?” I asked.
Dina gave me a sly smile. “Still sleeping, with a smile that
will last until both moons are full.”
We laughed together as we headed for lunch.
Adda and the others were already eating. Once more, someone
had brought us lunch. I looked around and could tell who it was.
She had slightly larger breasts but smaller hips.
“She looks like your type,” I whispered in Dale’s ear,
nodding my head her way. “I wonder if they know doggy style? Having
her on top of you might be difficult if she was unconscious.”
He looked up and moaned a little. I laughed along with the
rest of the ladies. “Too much play? Does my baby need a nap this
afternoon instead?”
He smiled and blushed. “Well…”
Tala suggested, “You can always take a full breath, or catch two.”
I could see he might be contemplating that.
As we finished lunch his afternoon paramour walked over.
“Play time again big boy,” I told him, messing up his hair a bit.
He sighed, then looked at me and laughed. He sprang to his
feet in a show of male ego.
She approached us; she had a single kaelen. Dale put his arm
around her waist.
“Be gentle with him, he worked very hard this morning,” I
told her helpfully.
Dale frowned at first as we laughed, but was laughing as well
as they walked off together.
I turned to Tala. “Do you know about the moss in our hut?”
She nodded her head as she swallowed something. “Yes,” she
said when her mouth was empty. She told me it had been done by the
group of teens I’d helped. They’d be keeping our hut cleaned and
with moss for a week or two as thanks.
Dina asked me, “Do you have plans for this afternoon?”
I smiled and said, “Your husband too?”
She gave me a low laugh. “Yes, but I was busy this morning.”
I shook my head. Oh well. I thought about it myself, but
not seriously. “I think I’ll go shake some moths,” I announced.
Tala added, “She has a very nice place to do it.”
Dina nodded. “May I come with you?”
“Yes. We’ll need to be back in time to look for my husband,
though. He may need rescuing again.”
We laughed, but Adda nodded seriously.
The three of us went back up the hill. We each caught a moth
and sat down. As I looked up at the end of a deep breath I saw Tala
had done the same, but Dina was sitting there smiling. What was she
up to, I thought as I melted to the mossy ground.
I found out as I drifted back to the scrambled sensations of
a tongue in my center. I heard someone (Tala?) start the kaelen on
blissful release for us. I let go to the sensations. I floated up
again to the comforting feeling, and felt a nipple at my mouth. It
was heaven to be held to that soft warm nipple. I awoke later and
sat up to see Dina comforting Tala; both had that look of bliss.
When we were all capable of talking again Dina asked me, “How
did I do?”
I chuckled and ran fingers on her thigh. “You did very well.”
Tala surprised me by saying, “Yes, she did.”
I looked at Tala, then Dina.
Dina said, “And Tala practiced with me. My husband is
learning, as will hers. Soon we will all know.”
Tala added, “Just like with swimming.”
I laughed and was joined by the others. It was a little
different from the new swimming strokes we’d taught them.
I looked at the sun angle; it was getting late.
Dina sighed. “We should go down and rescue our men, especially Dale.”
As we headed down I said, “You think Dale will need rescuing again?”
Tala said, “Oh yes, both of them are the same moon, as are most of us.”
I almost stumbled on the path down as my mind clicked the
pieces together. What had we called it in college? The female dorm
syndrome? Get enough females living closely together, and gradually
they all slip into the same menstrual cycle. I knew that my cycle
was out of phase with most of the women in the village; it was
actually quite nice. During some phases of one moon in particular,
the huts held two women each. Being out of phase, I got one to
myself. So that meant we might be dealing with a bunch of women at
the peak of their fertility. The bugs certainly could tell that.
And they certainly seemed to want our children. That explained the
ride Dale was getting.
“Tala,” I asked as we walked, “how will you keep from having a child?”
She shook her head, this must be something everyone
understood. “He will sing to me in my hut at night, telling me it is
not yet my time. I will spend my days in the huts as usual.”
That answer was somewhat of a surprise, yet expected. It was
another answer to my question of why we weren’t awash in babies. Did
they prevent fertilization, attachment to the uterine wall, or just
insure a menstrual cycle at the next appropriate period? Or did they
do something completely different?
“What is that sound?” I asked.
Dina turned to me. “We won’t tell you, not yet,” she said with a smile.
I stopped and sighed; we were at the bottom of the hill path.
Large mounds of feelings resettled inside me, moving, reshaping, and
rebalancing. I told them, “I know He wants me to have a baby; so do
I. These knots take time to untie.”
We walked back to the pool area. They told me to wait, and
went off in search.
This time Tala and Dina both walked Dale back. He was still
dazed, and they looked as if they were having trouble moving. I
laughed to myself; this could be very good for a monogamous
relationship after all. They dropped their skirts, and his, and Tala
led him into the water while Dina shed her kaelen. I shed mine and
quickly moved to them.
I took my husband and floated him on his back. He looked at
me with glassy eyes, smiled, and let his eyes close. “They did it to
me again,” he croaked.
I looked at Dina and Tala; they were washing furiously. They
must have waded through quite a cloud of pheromones.
They came up out of the water smiling. We all went to the
falls. They stood under the falling water for a while.
“How is his friend?” I asked.
Tala gave a low laugh and Dina answered. “He is working hard
on this one,” she said, pointing to Dale. “There were two kaelen
there. She too will be smiling until the next full moon.”
It seemed to be a good recipe for success; pump them full of
sperm and keep them on their backs. Perhaps I should check with the
ship. Even if a trip up to the ship was necessary, I could do that
from one of the peaks and only be gone a few hours. He was not to be
denied it seemed. He wanted babies; he was going to get babies.
Hmmm… Going to the ship… There had been a few days
recently when Dale hadn’t been around for lunch. He’d talked of
fossil deposits a few hundred clicks away. The big problem would be
in avoiding sonic booms while the ship moved you inside an effector
field. Both of us had done that many times in training.
We got out and combed out each others’ hair, Dale sitting
more or less comatose. Dina whispered something to Tala, and Tala
headed off as we walked back, one of us on either side of Dale.
We arrived back a little before dinner time. We sat in our
usual places to rest. I lay Dale down at my side, putting him in the
rescue position.
Adda came by a little later, joined by three of the other
elders. Both Dina and I bowed respectfully.
One of them said, “Thank you for helping Tala. She is asking
much of you.”
I sighed and replied, “She has given much to me; you all have
given much to me. I am happy I can give something back.”
Adda sat down and the others went to their usual spots. Adda
looked down at Dale. She started making a sound; it was male,
resting, and something else. The something else was familiar. I’d
heard it during my period. Recovery? Rebuilding? I practiced it a
little. Adda smiled to me and told me to sing it for him when he was
asleep; it would help him regain his strength.
Dinner started a while later. I got Dale to sit up. I
thought about using the kaelen to give him a kick, much as I’d done
to the boy I’d saved, but thought against it. Right now he needed to
rest and recover.
During the early part of the meal a very pretty young thing
with one kaelen came over to us, bearing a very nice array of fruit.
She put it down in front of Dale and me, looking Dale in the eye and
smiling as she did so. Her nipples showed her intentions. She asked
sweetly if he was busy in the morning. I expected a groan, but
instead he said, “How about tomorrow after lunch?”
She smiled and thanked us, looked me in the eye, and when I
nodded, she bowed again and left.
“You are insatiable!” I exclaimed after she’d walked away.
“Who are you with tomorrow morning?” I accused.
He handed me a piece of fruit and said, “You.”
I was still tempted to mash the fruit in his face, or worse
yet, into his chest so he’d have to bathe again. Instead I said, “I
love you.”
He nodded and said, “I know,” then more softly, “I need to be held
tonight. Protect me.”
That just about melted my heart. His balls may belong to the
bugs, but his heart was mine.
After dinner we went back to our hut. I could tell we left a
couple of women frustrated. They probably had another day or two. I
also got inviting looks from some young men as I led my husband.
Once inside, I comforted him and led him to sleep, putting
him down on the soft moss. I started one of the kaelen making the
restorative sound. The kaelen hopped down and rested on Dale’s head,
its abdomen swaying over his face.
I sharpened my mind and worked on my report for a while. I
had more answers, or more puzzle pieces, but still more questions.
The bugs could regulate births, that was clear. They could sense
fertility. Did they prevent fertilization, implantation, or cause
abortion to eliminate unwanted births? From my own training, to
which I wished I’d paid more attention, I remembered that for our
science, the least meddlesome approach to a woman’s hormonal cycle
and balance was to interfere with implantation of the fertilized egg
along the wall of the uterus. But, who knows what they’d evolved.
Another puzzle that popped up was from Dale’s comment on his
morning’s rut. I’d have to follow up and confirm that. He said
there had been but one kaelen there, yet the woman had been flat on
her back, and he’d been run through the wringer. Possible solutions
included more than one kaelen, each controlling one person; one
kaelen switching from one sound (meaning pheromone) to another, or
most intriguing, one kaelen producing more than one pheromone at
once. Did they synthesize on the fly, or did they have a stored
library ready to go?
Once again it got late and I was no closer to solving this
world’s puzzles. I held my husband and let our kaelen sing us to
sleep.