Chapter 12: Cultural Exchange

“There it is again,” Ben said, tapping at one of his monitors.

“The earthquake?” Lozka asked, turning from her turret view to glance at him.

“Something is causing seismic activity, not a lot of it, but enough to trip the sensors. I swear, it’s like the suite is picking up Bugs tunneling beneath the ground, but there’s no way there can be any Bugs on Borealis. It’s impossible. Either way, it freaks me out, I don’t like seeing readings like this...”

“You said it was growing stronger?” Mizi added, turning her wheel as she weaved through the dunes.

“The further West we go, the stronger it gets,” he replied. “I’m starting to think that it isn’t geological in nature, it just doesn’t match any patterns that I’m aware of. What’s weird about it is that it’s pretty much constant, while seismic activity usually comes in waves.”

“Could the Rask be digging tunnels beneath the desert like Bugs?” Mizi suggested.

“I doubt it,” Ben muttered, scratching his head.

“In my territory,” Lozka began, “we hunt large herbivores that dwell deep in the jungle. They are furtive, but we can locate their herds by the sound of their heavy footsteps, even from afar. Our hunters put an ear to the ground and listen for the vibrations that they create.”

“I get what you’re saying,” Ben said with a nod. “If the Rask really are somehow responsible for these readings, then we can track them by following them to their source. It’s not like we have anything else to go on right now.” He turned back to his monitors, starting to type in values. “Mizi, I’m going to extrapolate coordinates based on the strength of the readings. Just keep driving straight for now, and I’ll feed them to your console as soon as I have something concrete.”

“Got it, Commander.”

“Good idea, Lozka,” he added. “Who would have thought having an Araxie tracker around would be so useful?”

“We shall either find Rask,” she replied, gripping the turret’s joystick. “Or a very, very large herd...”

“Bearing one-nine-five,” Ben said, poring over his map. “I don’t see any noteworthy landmarks in that direction, but that’s definitely where the readings are strongest. I think that if we keep going this way, we’ll eventually come across whatever is making all these vibrations.”

“I wish we could see further in this storm,” Mizi muttered. “I don’t like the idea of having to drive within a hundred meters or so of an enemy position before we can get eyes on them.”

“As with the hot spring, I can leave the vehicle and scout the area on foot,” Lozka suggested.

“That could work,” Ben replied. “Let’s wait until we can get a better idea of what we’re dealing with first.”

It wasn’t long before night fell, and the creeping cold started to set in. They went about their usual routine, parking the Timberwolf between two dunes and covering it with its camouflaged tarp. Once that was done, Ben went outside and set up a one hundred meter perimeter around the vehicle with proximity sensors. It was nice, in a way, not have to be on lookout. There was nothing to see in the storm, and so they were all able to hang out without one of them having to monitor the cameras.

Ben cooked them another round of MREs and warmed up some drinks, the three of them chatting as they ate together. They had been on good terms before their night in the hot spring, but something had changed since then, they seemed even friendlier than usual. Mizi especially always seemed to want to be near him, sitting beside him on the mattress and leaning her head on his shoulder as she fished out pieces of meat from her ration packet with a plastic fork.

“It was strange for me to see so many males when I first started serving with humans,” she said, gesturing with her fork as she ate. “On Val’ba’ra, males don’t serve in the military at all.”

“Why is that?” Ben asked, taking a sip of his hot cocoa. “We don’t have a lot of female humans in combat roles, but the Navy is full of them.”

“They’re smaller and weaker than the females,” she explained. “Males on Val’ba’ra usually live with their parent flock until they come of age, then they seek out a flock of females to join. Traditionally, they’re homemakers. They maintain the flock’s dwelling and raise their children. These days, males have a lot more independence. They sometimes get their own jobs, or they travel to a few different cities before settling down. I’ve even seen a few who have made their way to the Pinwheel.”

“Weird,” Ben muttered, raising an eyebrow. “Sounds like human society a few hundred years ago, but reversed. Could they join the military if they wanted to?”

“I doubt that most could meet the requirements if they tried,” she replied.

“I guess that anything much smaller than you would be pushing it,” Ben joked, Mizi giving him a playful whip on the leg with her tail.

“There is little difference in physical prowess between our genders,” Lozka added, pausing to chew on a strip of meat from a foil packet that she was holding in her hand. “Males and females are equally capable, and we have no tasks that favor one gender over another. Save perhaps that females can produce milk to feed the kittens, but that task is a communal one regardless, so it matters little.”

“Yeah,” Ben replied, taking another sip from his mug. “All of the female Borealans that I’ve seen have been pretty ... large.”

“Do you produce milk?” Mizi asked, her question directed at Ben.

“Are we on the nipples thing again?” he asked, feigning indignation. “I told you, they’re vestigial!”

Mizi’s headdress flashed yellow as she laughed, Lozka letting slip a rare chuckle as her companions squabbled.

“I still don’t get how males and flocks work,” Ben continued. “So, males don’t have their own flocks? Only females have flocks, and when males are mature, they have to find a flock of females to join? Then, it’s like they’re having a relationship with ... all of its members?”

“It has always been that way,” Mizi replied with a shrug. “There are roughly six females born for every male, it’s part of our biology.”

“What happens if only five of the six females like him?” Ben asked. “Does the sixth just have to deal with it?”

“Flocks reach consensus,” Mizi explained, “decisions are made as a group. Finding someone who’s compatible with five, six, or even seven people isn’t as hard as you might imagine. I know that humans date, and we do the same. We spend time with them, try to figure out if they’re a good match before making a commitment.”

“Does your flock have a male?” he asked.

“Gosh, no,” she replied with a flutter of pink. “We’re not nearly old enough to settle down and start populating incubators.” She turned her violet eyes to Lozka, who was fishing in her foil packet for another oversized strip of jerky. “What about you, Lozka? How do Araxie packs choose a mate?”

“The way that we court is somewhat less structured,” she replied, tearing off a piece of meat with her sharp teeth. “Packs usually have what you might call a job. There is a pack of hunters in the village, a pack of farmers, a pack of butchers. Araxie might move between packs based on their abilities and desires, but the Alpha of that pack is always the most accomplished and competent Araxie among them. We are drawn to competence. Skill and knowledge are of great value to us. An Alpha must also be charismatic and responsible if they are to be loved, they must care for their pack, provide for them.”

“See, that makes sense to me,” Ben said as he gestured to his feline crewmate. “It’s a meritocracy, you put the smartest, most experienced people in charge.”

“There is no real concern for how many males or females are in a pack,” she continued, “we do not have the same preferences that your kind do. Mating is recreational, all pack members participate as they please, and any children that result are raised by the community.”

“That sounds kind of idyllic,” Ben chuckled. “I feel like I should tell you guys that humans are monogamous and that we mate with one person for life, but it doesn’t often turn out that way. We usually have a series of relationships that might last months or years, then we settle down with someone and have kids. Even then, the relationship might not last. It’s a pretty complicated subject,” he added, finishing off his drink. “I won’t bore you with the minutia.”

“So, are ‘you’ in any kind of relationship?” Mizi asked.

“I travel all over the Galaxy,” he chuckled, “there’s not a lot of time for pursuing relationships. I guess I’d want to, eventually, but that’s what everybody says.”

“Don’t you get lonely?” she asked, wrapping her little arms around his bicep as she drew closer. “No flock, no pack, no mate.”

“I have friends, comrades,” he replied with a shrug. “I have a crew now, I have you guys, right?”

Mizi hugged his arm a little tighter, Lozka nodding her head in agreement.

“I have said before that you would make a good Alpha, Commander,” Lozka said. That title had a new implication now, and he was suddenly aware of the rapid beating of his heart as he met her gaze across the troop bay. Her green eyes glittered like emeralds, her feline pupils contracted to narrow slits beneath the light strips in the ceiling. He glanced down at Mizi, seeing that her pink feathers were standing erect.

“Well,” he began. “Now that I know a little more about what that entails, I appreciate the compliment. For what it’s worth, you guys have been a fine crew. Or flock, pack, whatever you want to call it.”

They finished up their meal, then started preparing for bed. There was no longer a question as to whether Ben was going to share a sleeping bag with his companions. It was just what they did now. Ever since their trip to the hot spring, it was like all of the barriers had been torn down, like all of his human hangups had been stripped away. The idea that distance had to be maintained between people who were so friendly, that physical contact was somehow impolite, now seemed as alien to him as it did to his crew. It was like he had lived his life up to this point surrounded by an invisible force field that warded away anyone who came too close, preventing any genuine expressions of affection.

He noticed that Mizi was taking her suit off this time, facing away from him as she dragged the zipper down and began to shrug it off. Her green scales reflected the light as she swung her proportionally wide hips back and forth, her thick tail waving. It was ever a struggle for her to get out of that thing, it was practically skin-tight. When she had stripped down to her shorts and tube top, she set it on one of the racks, pausing to shiver for a moment as she felt the bite of the growing cold.

“You might want to keep that on,” he warned. “It’s going to get mighty cold again tonight.”

“I know,” she replied, turning to look at him. “I figured maybe scale-on-scale would warm me up more. Or rather scale-on-skin, scale-on-fur. I dunno,” she chuckled with a flash of pink plumage.

“Oh, yeah,” replied. “I guess I can see that.”

Lozka took up her usual place on the mattresses in the center of the troop bay, stretching out and opening her mouth in a wide yawn. Ben was always mesmerized when her shining fur caught the light at the right angle, every muscle and curve glistening, as though her body had suddenly been imbued with more depth and detail. He could make out the smooth rows of muscle that ran down her abdomen, her hip bones peeking out above her beltline. Unlike Mizi, Lozka never wore any more or less clothing. She was always clad in her impossibly tight leather shorts and her simple sling.

Mizi sat down next to her, partially covering the large feline with the sleeping bag, using it as a blanket. She waited for Ben to shut off the lighting strips, the glow from the monitors that bled in from the cab providing just enough illumination to see by. Well, enough for him and Mizi, at least. Lozka was nocturnal, she could probably see just as well in these conditions as Ben could in daylight.

He made his way over to them, lowering himself down between the two. Lozka rolled onto her side, nestling his head beneath her furry chin. Her warm breath blew his hair, his shoulder pressing into the yielding flesh of her breasts through her leather sling. She let her furry hand rest on his chest, its span near the size of a dinner plate, her curved claws pricking the material of his suit. Mizi snuck in from his left, encouraging him to wrap an arm around her, draping her own across his belly as she shuffled to get closer. The natural resting position for his hand at this angle was around her waist, and after a moment of hesitation, he let his fingers slide against her flush scales.

His fingers reached the elastic waistband of her tight shorts, brushing the base of her tail, and he felt her shiver. He drew back, letting his hand rest on her hip. Mizi gripped his wrist, her hand small enough that she couldn’t get her fingers all the way around it, his heart starting to race as she guided him lower. She encouraged him to cup one of her pert cheeks, arching her spine and pushing out her butt in invitation. Only an insubstantial layer of what felt like spandex stood between them. He could feel the smoothness of her scales through the thin material, the way that his fingers sank into her doughy fat. He had admired her voluptuous figure from afar, but she was even softer than he could have imagined, the meat of her rump filling his palm like he was squeezing a ball of putty. Deep beneath it was the muscle that made her figure so appealing, firm and springy, like rubber. He wanted to knead it, to slip his hand beneath her shorts and take greedy handfuls, but he held back.

Mizi pushed her snout beneath his chin, nuzzling against him, her warm breath blowing on his neck as she sighed. Her feathers tickled his cheek, their colors a blend of excited yellow and blushing pink.

“Isn’t it time that we became more than just crewmates?” she whispered, Ben’s heart skipping a beat. “You’ve been trying so hard to keep things professional, it’s adorable,” she cooed. “But I don’t need to know much about human body language to notice the way you look at us.”

Ben didn’t know how to respond, but he realized that he hadn’t pulled his hand away yet. What did she expect was going to happen next? Lozka was right next to them, and he was too nervous to glance over and check if she was asleep yet.

“I saw how everted you were in the hot spring,” Mizi added, her hand sneaking up to caress his cheek. She seemed to savor being able to touch him so unreservedly, as though she too had been holding back her feelings. “You don’t have to keep this up,” she murmured, those violet eyes enrapturing him as he looked down at her. “There’s nothing unusual about wanting to blow off steam, about wanting to be closer to us.”

“Everted?” he stammered, not recognizing the term.

“Like this,” she whispered, her glittering eyes glancing downwards. He flinched as her fingertips brushed his growing erection through the material of his pressure suit, the Valbaran quickly pulling away, waiting for his permission before taking things any further.

“We shouldn’t,” he replied, lowering his voice in the hope that Lozka wouldn’t overhear them. “I’m ... I’m your commanding officer. I’m responsible for you, I’m supposed to watch out for you. It wouldn’t be ... appropriate.”

“But you ‘have’ been watching out for us,” Mizi murmured, stroking her thumb across his burning cheek. “That’s one of the reasons I want this. It’s so sweet the way you cook for us, the way you go out of your comfort zone for our sakes, the way your cute face flushes red like a headdress when we’re all in bed together. It makes me so ... broody.”

“But-”

“No more buts,” she insisted, her tail snaking around his thigh beneath the sleeping bag. “You’ve done your duty, unless you’re about to tell me that making love is against regulations?”

“N-no,” he admitted, his breathing growing heavier as she pressed closer to him. He was doing it again, holding himself back for no good reason. There was that same pit in his stomach, that same sense of longing that he had felt watching Mizi and Lozka from afar in the hot spring. He wanted this as much as she did, he just had to find the courage to cast off his reservations, to let the current carry him rather than trying to fight against it...

“All you have to do is say yes,” she whispered, seeming to sense the conflict in him. “Every time you let yourself go a little, it makes you happy, doesn’t it?”

It was like somebody had suddenly lit a fire in his belly, its heat spreading through his veins. He felt an overwhelming impulse to kiss her, but he wasn’t sure how. Her snout wasn’t the right shape. Instead, he bundled her up in his arms, pulling her tight as he pressed his lips against her scaly forehead. Mizi tensed, her feathers going haywire, flashing nonsensical patterns and colors. As he drew away, she sank into his embrace, her plumage shifting back to solid pink again.

“That’s good too,” she giggled.

“Are we even compatible?” he asked, his heart pulsing in his ears. He couldn’t remember the last time that he had felt this way, a nervous energy threatening to overcome him, like a battery that was about to overload. “Can a human and a Valbaran even...”

“We’ll have to find out,” she replied with a smile.

“What about Lozka?” he whispered. “We can’t just ... with her right there...”

He lurched as a furry hand slid up his chest beneath the blanket, gripping his cheeks between a finger and thumb. The pads on Lozka’s furry digits were soft and fleshy, her claws pricking his skin.

“Surely you did not think that a huntress would not hear your whispering?” she asked, turning his head to face her as Mizi watched gleefully. Her voice was so deep and husky, he could feel it resonating in his very bones. He gazed up into those shining, emerald eyes, so piercing and intense that they seemed to sap away his strength. Her pupils were dilated into dark circles in the gloom, drawing him in like a pair of singularities. He swallowed, not knowing if he should be aroused or frightened. She might be about to join in, or she could be preparing to chastise him. Her face was nigh expressionless as she scrutinized him.

“Mizi is wise for one so small,” the Araxie continued. “I can hear the beating of your heart, I can smell the pheromones in your sweat. In my culture, mating within a pack need not be more meaningful than showing affection for a friend, or appreciation for an Alpha. As long as that is what you wish.”

“And we’re ... friends?” Ben stammered, the alien still holding his face in her silky grasp.

“We are packmates,” she replied, her voice taking on a sultry tone. “You know what that means by now.”

She suddenly drew closer, bringing her black lips to his own, stopping just short as he loosed a surprised gasp. The Araxie poised there, waiting for him to reciprocate. It was quite a way to ask his permission...

Ben leaned in, feeling Mizi’s eyes on him as he met Lozka’s kiss, the fruity scent of her soap invading his head as she cradled his face in her furry palm. Her lips were so full and soft, a pulse of electricity shooting down his spine as she slipped the tapered tip of her tongue into his mouth. Everything around him seemed to melt away as the warm, wet muscle slid against his own, curling and probing as he struggled to meet it. She was conscious of his limitations, only using a paltry two or three inches, but it was still long enough that she could lick his inner cheeks and glance the roof of his mouth. The underside was as soft as silk, the barbs that lined its upper surface rough, but not unpleasantly so. It coiled around his tongue like a snake, wrestling with it, what had started as a gentle embrace taking on a more aggressive quality.

Lozka, too, had been separated from her natural social environment. He couldn’t imagine what it must be like to live with a group of people so willing to indulge your every desire, and then to suddenly be separated from them. Ben could feel the need in every doting stroke of her powerful organ, the lust in the way that it explored him, stroking and teasing. She fed him a little more of its length, subjecting him to a kiss so deep and sensual that it was enough to make him dizzy.

She finally broke off, Ben pushing his face into the silky fur of her hand, breathing hard. The alien had a far larger lung capacity than he did, but the lightheadedness felt kind of nice...

When he opened his eyes again, he saw that the Araxie was still peering down at him, her eyelids drooping. Lozka was normally so stoic, she rarely showed any emotion at all, the unexpected display of affection making his head swim. Mizi clung to him from his left, rubbing her snout against his neck, Lozka releasing her hold on him so that he could turn to look at her.

“Finally,” the Valbaran chuckled, giving Lozka a knowing smirk. “I was starting to think he’d never come around.”

Now that Ben was over the hurdle, he could scarcely remember what about the prospect of becoming more intimate with his crewmates had made him hesitate so much. This felt ... good ... right, like something that he was supposed to be doing.

“What happens now?” he asked, not knowing which of his companions to focus on. His flustered state seemed to amuse Mizi, perhaps she had seen this reaction before with males of her own kind, overwhelmed by the attentions of a whole flock of females.

“I know nothing of their ways,” Lozka said, having what felt like a private conversation with Mizi as he lay sandwiched between them on the mattresses.

“Me neither,” the Valabaran replied with a grin. “I guess we’ll have to learn as we go.”

Ben opened his mouth to interject, but he was silenced by Lozka, the feline pushing her face into the nape of his neck and giving him a gentle bite on the shoulder that made his brain short-circuit. There was no reason to hold back now, no reason to hesitate. He delved a hand into her soft hair, finding it just as inviting as her fur, like strands of silk were running between his fingers. She seemed to appreciate it, and he remembered her comment about his lack of claws, stroking her as she kissed and nibbled at his neck. The Araxie was going from zero to ten fast enough to give herself another case of whiplash.

He felt Mizi’s hands begin to unfasten his pressure suit beneath the padded sleeping bag, finding the zipper, and beginning to pull it down. He still had an arm wrapped around her, and he held her close, daring to cop another feel of her ample rump. She warbled happily as she felt him squeeze, the muscle beneath her velvet fat tensing at his touch, the grip of her tail on his thigh tightening. She was surprisingly strong for someone so small.

She unzipped the suit down to his waist, pulling up his tank top and running her hand across his stomach. He was in decent shape, as mandated by his job, the little alien delighting in tracing the contours of his muscles with her dull claws.

“You’re so smooth,” she muttered, glancing up at him for a moment before turning her attention back to his body. “Almost feels like waxed scales...”

Lozka let up her kissing, her silky cheek brushing against Ben’s as she watched the Valbaran continue to undress him. Mizi pulled back the sleeping bag as she went, exposing more of him to the cold air, but he felt so feverishly warm that it hardly mattered now.

She reached his crotch, leaning on his stomach as she hooked her fingers around his waistband, pulling his shorts down. His member caught on the elastic for a moment, then bounced free, standing erect an inch from her face. Her feathers erupted in another display of pink and yellow, the little alien pausing to glance back at Lozka with wide eyes.

“It’s a little ... more than I was expecting,” she muttered, reaching out to touch her finger against the tip. His member throbbed, flexing as she watched it with a blend of arousal and apprehension. Somehow, Ben doubted that Lozka would feel the same way.

“There’s only one shaft,” she continued, making him shiver as she traced one of the bulging veins with a scaly digit. “Where’s the seminal groove? It’s so ... firm, and it’s covered in skin.”

“Should it ... not be?” Ben asked, confused by her observations.

“The Valbaran ... reproductive organ is very different,” she explained, Ben flinching as he felt her cup his balls in her cool palm. “What’s this?”

“C-careful,” he grumbled, “those are sensitive.”

“Does it feel good?” she asked, glancing up at him.

“Yeah, if you’re gentle,” he replied.

She was practically lying on his stomach now, her snout hovering above his erection as she examined it. Their difference in stature was so great, would they even be able to fit together?

She gripped his shaft in her hand, only just able to get fingers around its girth, seeming to enjoy the way that it pulsed in her grasp.

“It’s so hot,” she cooed, the idea sending a flush of pink through her headdress. “I can feel it beating like a heart. Fuck...”

“You should stroke it,” Lozka suggested, resting her hand on Ben’s bare chest as she watched. He could feel its warmth, her claws pricking his skin in a way that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Could it be that his anatomy was more familiar to Lozka than it was to Mizi? She was a fellow mammal, after all.

Mizi gripped it tighter, sliding her hand from the base to the tip, Ben loosing a gasp that only encouraged her. Her fine scales glided against his skin like she was wearing satin gloves, pleasantly cool when contrasted with his burning heat, the sensation making him raise his hips from the mattress reflexively. Mizi was so light that he had no trouble lifting her in the process, the Valbaran’s feathers flashing yellow in alarm, her tail squeezing his thigh for purchase.

“He likes that,” she chuckled.

“Here,” Ben muttered, reaching down past Mizi’s feathers and pulling back his foreskin. She examined it for a moment, the reptile glancing his exposed glans with her fingers, a jolt of pleasure rocking him.

“This looks more familiar,” she chuckled. “It was just covered up.”

Ben could tell that she wasn’t really sure what to do next. His organ seemed to be very different from what she had imagined, the alien letting it throb in her hand as she played her eyes up and down its length covetously. It was a little flattering, she was in awe of the thing, her pink tongue flashing as she wet her scaly lips. She brought them to its tip, pressing them against it experimentally, giving him a gentle peck. When he didn’t object, she extended her tongue, a sensation like wet silk enveloping his glans as she began to paint it with her saliva. The organ was relatively thin, but it was long and agile, the tip ending in a tapered point. Her slow, doting strokes were maddening, the Valbaran subjecting him to teasing glances and flurries that sent pleasant shivers crawling up his spine.

“T-the skin is sensitive too,” he advised. His toes curled as she began to move lower, keeping his glans cradled in her hand, stroking it gently with her thumb. It felt like she was trying to map every inch of his member, tracing every contour with her damp muscle, leaving a sheen of warm drool in her wake.

Lozka was watching the whole time, observing quietly, living up to the title of ‘Silent Huntress’ as always. Every so often, those green eyes would meet his own, her piercing gaze filling his stomach with butterflies. She was just so ... cool. It made him feel strange, but in a good way. He was still in a state of mild shock, the reality of his situation hadn’t quite caught up with him yet.

There was a strange new sensation that Ben didn’t recognize, making him lurch, and he craned his neck to see what Mizi was doing. The prehensile sheaths on her forearms that usually concealed her plumage were open, the alien using the delicate, soft feathers to tickle him. She brushed them gently against his shaft, Ben gritting his teeth against the pleasure. It felt like she was stroking him with a feather duster, the fine strands running up and down his length, setting his nerves alight as they brushed his glans.

“Do you like that?” Mizi chuckled, turning to peer back at him with a smile on her face. “You’re all twitchy.”

“Yeah,” he murmured, “that feels ... great...”

Mizi began to open her jaws, a pang of apprehension washing over him. Her mouth was full of tiny, pointed teeth, her people didn’t seem especially suited to oral sex. Rather than protest, he just went with the flow, trusting her not to hurt him. She took his member into her mouth, his glans brushing against her palate, the smooth flesh textured with ribs that made him flinch as they slid against his tender head. Because of the shape of her snout, she couldn’t close her lips in order to apply suction, she could only swirl her tongue around his shaft as she held it in her jaws. She was careful to keep her sharp teeth clear, Ben starting to relax as the waves of euphoria washed over him.

The surprise was wearing off, a fog of arousal falling over him. Mizi was kneeling on the mattress beside him now, resting her weight on his belly, her butt facing him. Growing braver, he reached down and sank his hand into the meat of her ass again, taking a generous handful through the stretchy material of her shorts. It was like a perfect peach, springing back to its original shape whenever he let up, Mizi murmuring around his member.