Chapter 2

Learning standard was to be their first task and they would remain aboard this ship to do so. This would give them the opportunity to get accustomed to the other aliens, and see what life is like aboard a spaceship. They would not start the training process until the ship was underway, to give them time to reconsider.

"I don't plan on changing my mind," said Zeke. "But I'm worried about my family finding me missing, and freaking out. Can I tell them something so they won't worry?"

"The computer maintains different approaches to your issue," said Mvek, "use the gesture to activate it."

Zeke resolved to do so before he went to sleep. No one could possibly notice him missing until at least a few days from now, probably not for several weeks.

The other humans had all been picked up earlier today. The three here were Susan, Dan, and Mike. They had gone through the same website as Walter, exchanging emails for a time, then coming out to meet Mvek.

Zeke noticed Susan and Dan were wearing similar clothes, a two piece white outfit that wouldn't have been out of place on earth. Susan wore a form-fitting tank top and a pair of loose pants, almost like pajama bottoms. Dan wore a looser tank top and the same type of pants. Both Susan and Dan were barefoot.

"So are you guys wearing the official uniform?" asked Zeke.

"They were in the closet in our room," said Dan, "so we figured we'd try them out."

"It's really comfortable," said Susan, smiling at Dan. "The top acts like a bra, but you hardly notice it's there."

Hardly there at all, thought Zeke, noticing the outline of Sally's nipples. A moot point though, Susan and Dan were obviously an item.

"This ship has some amazing things," said Dan. "The walls in the quarters are viewscreens. You can set them to any color or even a moving image. And get this," added Dan, "they don't generate light. I dimmed the room lights, the images will still move, even if it's dark."

Dan and Susan explained the quarters and other things were controlled by communicating with the ship's computer. It wasn't a true AI, but it did have an advanced command recognition. All commands to the computer had to start with the spoken word: "Computer."

Later, they met the remaining alien. She was wearing the same white outfit as Susan, and looked a lot more human than Mvek and the Greys. She stood about four and a half feet tall and had very pale skin. Except for the ears and missing nose she could almost pass for a human that had never seen the sun.

Her hair was short all over, but strangely divided into two sections. The top of her head was covered with a stiff, thick, light-green hair about three inches long. Her eyebrows swept back and joined it at the sides, where the hair thinned out into very fine shorter white strands.

Her eyes and mouth looked mostly human, but in place of a nose was a flat area with two horizontal slashes half the width of her mouth, one right over the other. Each slash opened slightly as she breathed. Her ears swept back, the outsides were covered with the fine hair, the insides were light pink.

Her body was shaped like a human's, a very thin human, with almost normal-looking arms and legs, and five digits on each hand. But she had no visible breasts, and her bare feet were half again as wide as human feet, with three widely-spaced, equal-sized toes.

Mvek introduced her as Sori, the ship's medical specialist. Sori did not speak English. Alien, but cute, thought Zeke. He smiled at Sori, not having a better way to say hello. Sori tilted her head and looked at Zeke; her face was expressionless.

Sori took the opportunity to give each of them an examination. All she did was pass a small tubelike device over their heads, not touching them. The device then emitted a complex hologram in midair, lots of circles and lines of all different colors. Sori carefully examined the hologram after she finished with each of them. She then spoke with Mvek in an alien language.

"Sori reports good health for all of you," said Mvek.

Not having a common language prevented Sori from joining the conversation, and she soon departed. After a while, they wound up looking around the ship as they talked with Mvek. A few areas were inaccessible.

"Some areas are dangerous," said Mvek. "Examples are ships engines, medical facility, crew dining room."

Even though the different alien species shared many things, food was not always among them. Food for some species was poison for others. To make sure the humans did not come to harm, the crew's dining room was off limits. As were other areas where the curious humans could inadvertently get hurt, especially when they were disoriented by the mental stimulation procedure.

"The mental stimulation procedure is unpleasant," said Mvek. "Speaking Standard is necessary for communicating with others."

"Hey Mvek," said Mike, "how much do we get paid for working on your ships?"

"Approximately 150 credits a week," said Mvek. "Food, housing, clothing, medical, and other needs are provided to everyone."

"What's a credit look like?" asked Mike.

"A credit is a number in a computer," said Mvek. "It has no physical existence."

Mvek went on to explain credits were not exactly like money. Credits could not be invested, earn interest, or be transferred to another. Credits were merely an accounting method to control distribution of resources. While all necessities were provided at no cost, credits allowed the acquisition of for-fun items.

Finally, as it was getting late, most of the group decided to get some sleep and headed to their quarters. Zeke was still too excited to sleep and wanted to have one last look around the ship.

He found his car in the storage bay and gave it a quick cleaning, since the backseat and trunk doubled as a storage bin and garbage can. Most of the stuff was junk and Zeke put it in the disposal. Zeke then hauled the keepers back to his quarters, putting his stuff in one of the empty cabinets.

Feeling the need, Zeke urinated in the elimination device, watching bemusedly as his stream pooled in the bottom and disappeared. Finished, he made the hand gesture and felt a strange tingling on his hand for a moment.

Interesting, that hadn't happened before when he gestured at the door. Was there something wrong with the device? He examined his hand. It seemed just fine. Weird.

Zeke decided to check out the computer terminal, take a bath, and then get some sleep. He wanted to be well rested and alert for tomorrow.

Sitting down at the desk, Zeke used the gesture. No tingling, but a holographic display appeared. It was a three dimensional representation of several boxes, each having a label. On the first row: quarters, ship, health, food, contacting, emergency, Standard.

Zeke touched contacting and text appeared. There were a number of stories people had used, from the Peace Corps to becoming a monk. The story Zeke liked best was joining the Peace Corps, and going off to some remote country with limited communications. There were several sample letters with what looked like a solid story; Zeke added a few personal touches and quickly pieced together a brief email. He wasn't sure how it would be sent, but this was alien technology after all.

His family would still worry, but at least he wouldn't just vanish off the face of the earth. The truth would probably worry them more, even if they did believe him.

With nothing else to do, Zeke checked out the "quarters" box and found some really interesting things. The clothes cleaner was in the closet and would automatically clean whatever clothes he hung there. The room with the tub also had a "shower" that cleaned without water. He could have a holographic window showing any views he wanted anywhere in his room. The water temperature in the bathtub adjusted by computer command. His room cleaned itself.

The door opened and Walter walked in. "I just found out something you will want to know," said Walter.

"I'm all ears," replied Zeke.

"You won't find any toilet paper. Just make the gesture and it will tingle you clean," said Walter.

One mystery solved.

"You're a lifesaver, dude," said Zeke.

"No problem," said Walter. "It's pretty late, I'm going to get some sleep."""

After Walter left, Zeke explored the bathtub. It was an eight foot circular depression, about four feet deep, to one side of the room. The wall above had a geometric pattern with several two inch diameter holes. The sides of the tub were rough, offering good traction, but comfortable. The gesture started it filling with water that ran down the far wall out of the holes. Within minutes the tub was filled with warm water.

Cabinets in the wall held towels and bottles of clear liquid. Someone had been nice enough to label them soap and shampoo in English.

The water could have been a bit warmer, but it was OK for now. Zeke would remember to have the computer adjust the temperature next time. Right now he would just enjoy a good soaking. After he was finished with the bath, a gesture drained the tub very quickly, although there were no drain holes visible. Zeke noticed it was completely dry.

Since he hadn't packed a suitcase, Zeke hung his clothes in the closet. He would have to sleep naked to allow his clothes time to be cleaned. Probably Mvek would get him some more clothes, but that hadn't happened yet. The top of the mattress was a few inches above floor level, the floor around the bed well-padded.

Wondering what would happen, Zeke made the gesture over the bed. Covers which had been neatly tucked in now floated back gracefully, surprising Zeke. The bed was even more comfortable than it looked. Zeke got settled under the covers, and realized he didn't know how to turn off the lights.