Chapter 4

In the morning Zeke awoke with Sori resting on him; Sori was still sleeping, so Zeke just watched her sleep. After a while Sori woke up and they both got ready for the day.

At breakfast everyone was pointing at and naming every visible object.

Apparently the teaching was not about to start for a while after breakfast, and Sori took the opportunity to give each of them a repeat examination. She passed the same small tubelike device over their heads, and examined the holograms. "Good," she said, after she finished with each of them.

"At least our brains aren't fried," said Walter, looking warily at Sori.

"Good thing," agreed Zeke, "I'm anxious to learn sentences."

"No sentences today," said Mvek, "more words."

And so it continued. The words poured into their brains, they stumbled through lunch and sometime later went back for more words. The day passed in a haze, and this time Zeke's head didn't clear after a walk around the ship. He felt drunk, and couldn't focus his thoughts.

Sori caught up to Zeke and led him to his own quarters. She helped him get into bed, but did not join him.

"Sleep," said Sori.

The next morning, he couldn't even remember if he had dinner. But he felt a lot better, and knew a lot more words. In fact, there wasn't a thing in his quarters that he couldn't name.

"Today you learn sentences," said Mvek, at breakfast.

Zeke was looking forward to this. Sori helped them into the training chairs and they got started.

Instead of the simple pictures of the last two days, today was something new. Zeke's hologram showed a person walking along, dragging his feet, about to collapse. The voice said the word for "tired," and shortly Zeke could say "I am tired," in Standard.

By lunch they could almost hold a conversation in Standard. And the mental fatigue, although present, wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday. Zeke hoped it would remain that way, he didn't want to go though that again.

"I am speaking Standard," said Zeke.

"I am eating a fake-meat burrito," said Susan.

Then back to the machines. By the end of the day the disorientation was back. Zeke was so exhausted he went immediately to sleep upon reaching his quarters.

Zeke awoke the next morning feeling better, but still a bit woozy, and headed for breakfast. Susan was the only one in the dining room, and Zeke sat down beside her.

"How are you feeling?" asked Zeke.

"I'm not so sure I can take any more of this," groaned Susan.

"I don't think we have very much left," said Zeke, "since we are having this conversation in Standard."

Sori came over and did the scans again. Zeke wanted to talk to her about their relationship, but didn't feel comfortable doing so in front of Susan. Hopefully they weren't married or something. Well, he would catch up to Sori later.

"You will be feeling better in a few hours," said Sori, "we will start the teaching session then."

"Do we still need it?" asked Susan. "We can talk in Standard pretty well, don't you think?"

"Yes," said Sori, "but you can't read it yet. Don't worry, today is the last day of the teaching."

Zeke found Sori after breakfast.

"Hi Sori," said Zeke, "before my head gets all fuzzy from today's teaching session, I wanted to tell you how fantastic you were those two nights. I'd like to be with you again, soon."

"I agree," said Sori. "You were excellent, pushing me to my limits, bathing my body in pleasure. We will have other times together, during this trip, and perhaps when chance allows us to meet afterwards."

When chance allows, considered Zeke. So the relationships did seem to be different with the aliens. Sori wasn't talking about any kind of commitment, she was describing more of a casual thing. At least it sounded that way.

"So," said Zeke, "does this sort of thing happen often between the different alien species or are we an exception?"

"Not all species are biologically able to enjoy recreational sex," said Sori. "Of those that are, a significant number have experimented at least once with another species. Sometimes physical differences prevent success, but most of the time it is enjoyable, or at least interesting, for all involved."

"Do any of the participants ever..." started Zeke. He didn't know the word for marriage. Either the lessons missed that one or it didn't exist.

"... ever form a more lasting relationship?" finished Zeke.

"I am not sure of your question," said Sori. "After our experience we have a relationship as sexual partners, and should we meet again after this trip I hope we might renew the relationship for a time."

Bingo! So their relationship had just been a casual fling, nothing more permanent.

"That's exactly what I wanted to know," said Zeke. "I hope I'm recovered enough from the training to be with you tonight."

"You will likely not be," said Sori, "but we still have tomorrow night, then you will be starting your training. Have you decided on your specialty?"

"Sure," said Zeke, "I'm going to be a pilot."

"A very good choice," said Sori, "Earthlings have excellent reflexes. When you get to the base, ask for instructor Yzran. He is perhaps the best instructor in your environmental tolerances."

"So I can just pick any instructor I want?"

"The instructor may refuse," said Sori, "but that is unusual."

Zeke talked with Sori until it was time for their lessons. Sori rounded everyone up and the Earthlings entered the teaching room for yet another round with the mind-numbing machines. The day passed in a haze and when Zeke awoke the next morning he could read Standard.

After getting ready for the day, Zeke switched the computer display to Standard and fooled around with it. Reading Standard was not as easy as reading English, but Zeke was fairly proficient; he just needed some more practice -- the old-fashioned kind, Zeke had had enough of the training machines.

Zeke found the others in the sitting room talking to one of the Greys. His name was Vish.

Vish's people, the Shao, had expanded to 112 planets and several thousand gigantic artificial worlds. Their population numbered over 203 trillion, and they were one of the more advanced peoples in the galaxy. The ship they were on had been built by the Shao over two hundred years ago, and it still looked new.

Vish showed them holograms of his artificial worlds and they were very impressive. One was a double torus larger than Jupiter housing almost one trillion individuals in luxury. Another looked to be a series of concentric rings containing enormous cities.

Most Shao preferred the artificial worlds, since they were not a physical race. A comparatively smaller number of Shao lived on the planets, but they were the exception -- if you could call 250 billion individuals an exception.

"So Vish," asked Zeke, "is there any truth to those stories about you guys and the anal probes?"

"And what about those cattle mutilations?" asked David.

"Some truth," acknowledged Vish.

"You shouldn't do that," complained Susan, "it's just wrong."

"Possibly," acknowledged Vish, "On the other hand, no Earthlings are harmed, sometimes minor medical problems are corrected. And we are conducting important research that could benefit countless species. Your system of food production has become intertwined to such a degree, that a bacteria or virus could quickly spread to a majority of livestock. Such conditions encourage a disease that could devastate your population. The same is true for many other developing worlds."

"That still doesn't give you the right to snatch people up for your experiments," said Susan.

"In any event," said Vish, "I am not involved with those projects, and with more human participation in our cooperative defense, such research is no longer looked upon favorably."

Another mystery solved, thought Zeke. A bit disconcerting though, humans had been looked upon as little more than experimental animals, at least until enough of them joined the alien's organization. How was the Shao's experimentation any different from those "other" aliens they would be defending Earth against? Zeke resolved to find out about this, but he wouldn't be asking the Shao on this ship.