Chapter 6

Zeke left his quarters, the door reappeared behind him. Now where was dinner?

"Computer, blue globe to dinner."

A blue globe appeared and moved to hover over the door. Zeke followed it outside. The globe went back towards the training room, stopping to hover over a green door, just two doors away from the training room. Obviously the green door was the dining room. A few aliens were in the area, including the one with multiple body segments that looked like a centipede.

"Computer," said Zeke, deciding not to enter the dining room yet, "dismiss guide."

The centipede alien was interesting; Zeke wanted a closer look. But he didn't want to be rude: Hey, you're weird looking, tell me about yourself. The alien was making slow, but reasonable, progress on his stubby lower limbs; going about half as fast as Zeke normally walked. In fact, the alien was following a red globe and coming closer to Zeke.

The red globe stopped over the yellow door. Probably the alien had just arrived and was checking out the training room. The alien was probably either an instructor, or more likely a trainee. No point in letting the alien wonder where everyone was, Zeke decided, heading towards the centipede.

"Hi, I'm Zeke, one of Yzran's new trainees. Are you a trainee too?"

The centipede's twelve body sections were about two feet in diameter, each six inches high; the tan-colored alien stood four feet tall. On closer inspection, the dozen appendages on each section were all the same -- short, thick limbs ending in three opposing, evenly spaced, stubby fingers that served as feet or hands. Standing vertically, only the appendages on the bottom segment worked as feet. The rest hung, relaxed, on the body.

"I am Etoona, also a trainee. I am surprised to find an Earthland in this section. Most Earthlands are uncomfortable around other species."

Etoona spoke with a low, gutteral voice that reminded Zeke of a frog croaking. Etoona. The name sounded familiar. Ah, it had been on the door of the first quarters Zeke had passed. Etoona had come prepared and secured his quarters sooner than Zeke.

"I think I see what you mean," said Zeke, "when I asked specifically for Yzran, they modified my globe's destination. Otherwise I'd probably be in a habitat with mostly... Earthlands, and not the trainee of the best instructor available."

"A disadvantage of those species newly joined the Hirthal," said Etoona, continuing towards the yellow door. "The social instincts limit them to interaction with species of a similar appearance, unless overcome by a period of adjustment."

"Social instincts?" asked Zeke.

"One of the natural behaviors," said Etoona, "such as tending to walk towards water, or away from darkness. Some social instincts useful in the evolution of a species can be annoying once intelligence evolves."

"Computer," said Etoona, "red guide to eating room."

"It's the green door over there," said Zeke, walking slowly beside Etoona.

The red globe hovered over the green door and disappeared as Zeke and Etoona entered. This room was a circle about twice the size of the training room. Like the training room, white was the predominant color. A large, low, circular counter enclosed what had to be an open kitchen. Small, foot high platforms were evenly spaced around the counter, most likely seating, but it looked uncomfortable.

No one else was in the room except for a single Shao behind the counter. This dining room wasn't set up for a buffet like on Mvek's ship; it was pretty obvious to Zeke they should pick a spot and be seated. If Zeke's guess was right, the Shao would come over and take their order or something like that. Cool, not many people could say they had been waited on by an alien.

"At least you have overcome most of your instinctive limitations," said Etoona. "Are you still uncomfortable around other species?"

"No," said Zeke, "I guess I'm so overwhelmed with finding out other intelligent species even exist, that I didn't think of being uncomfortable."

Etoona gestured at a seating platform and it sank into the floor. Moving over the spot where the platform had been, Etoona gestured again and the platform rose up. Neat, thought Zeke.

Zeke gestured at his own platform and it rose slightly, a narrow section at the back continued to rise at a slight angle, forming the back of a seat. Really neat, thought Zeke, sitting in the newly formed chair.

"Hello Etoona," said the Shao, noticing the pair and walking over to them. "I am Otheshiil, nutritionist. Will you accept my suggestion for tonight?"

"None of that," said Etoona, "splekk, prepared old style, and nothing extra."

"As you prefer," said Otheshiil, "Computer, transfer one siplekkol here, restrained, table two."

"Hello Zeke," said Otheshiil, "as this is new to you, I will explain. My purpose is to provide optimal nourishment to each trainee; I have studied in detail your species' requirements and I monitor your current condition. Correct nourishment will allow you to experience the best performance from your body and mind. However, the final decision as to your diet is your own. Will you accept my suggestion for tonight?"

Proper nutrition, Zeke mused. Back at the university, Zeke's diet hadn't been all that great; certainly he hadn't bothered with nutrition. But then, no one had offered him "optimal nourishment" tailored to his specific needs. If he accepted Otheshiil's advice, Zeke would probably get something like health food, bland and tasteless. But again, what could it hurt to try it? If it tasted too bad he could always ask Otheshiil for a burger and fries.

"That sounds... interesting," said Zeke, "give me whatever you think is best."

A motion overhead caught Zeke's eye. One of the robots was lowering a small creature, about the size of a cat, to Otheshiil's preparation table. The creature was green with blue stripes and had six legs. It was still, but Zeke could see it breathing. Zeke decided he would avoid watching Otheshiil prepare the splekk.

"Excellent," said Otheshiil, "your meals will be completed shortly."

"You will regret your choice," said Etoona, "nutritional food does not mean enjoyable food. Otheshiil would have me eating leaves if he could."

Otheshiil returned shortly with a large glass of clear liquid and a small plate for Zeke. It looked like a salad, tasted like a salad too. Not as good as a burger, but it wasn't that bad either. Think optimal performance, Zeke told himself.

"The food's not so bad," said Zeke, taking a drink. As he had suspected, it was water. "Besides, I want to be at top performance for my training."

"How much experience do you have," asked Etoona.

"None flying," admitted Zeke, "but I'm pretty good with simulations." Standard didn't have a word for video games, so that was as close as Zeke could come to explaining.

Otheshiil arrived with five plates, most of which went to Etoona. The one plate Zeke got had several wafers on it. Etoona's food actually looked pretty good, not like in the movies where the aliens ate nasty squirming worms. Etoona had several steaks, each skewered on an individual stick, and also some long orange bars.

"What type of simulations?" asked Etoona, "You just learned about the Hirthal."

"Well," said Zeke, munching on a wafer, "lots of recreational simulations where I control some kind of object."

Zeke noticed Etoona was holding multiple steaks on sticks in appendages belonging to various body segments. Each of the segments had a mouth, and each mouth was chewing the food. With all those mouths, Etoona ate fast.

"Better than nothing," said Etoona, taking his last bite. "I'm going to organize my quarters, bye for now."

Etoona gestured his platform down and headed out the door. Having only one mouth, Zeke tool a little longer to finish his dinner.

"Was dinner satisfactory?" asked Otheshiil.

"Not what I'm used to," said Zeke, "but not bad."

After talking with Otheshiil for a bit, Zeke headed back out to the park. With plenty of time before the night period, Zeke decided to look around. He started walking down one of the smaller paths; unlike the wider paths, this path was bare earth. In no time, the training plaza was out of sight and Zeke was alone, in the middle of the nicely kept park.

The plants were tall and thick enough to limit Zeke's visibility to the immediate area. Soon Zeke came upon a small open space with two benches positioned in front of a natural looking, three foot high waterfall. The gurgling of the water masked sounds coming from other areas of the park, giving Zeke a feeling of solitude.

The benches were low white rectangles with no backs, like in the dining room. Did they adjust in the same way? Zeke made the gesture at the bench; the rectangle rose six inches while a inch thick portion of the seat rose almost vertically, forming a back. Zeke sat on the newly formed bench, watching the waterfall, reflecting on the last week, and considering his future.

Before all of this, Zeke had not believed aliens existed. Now he was going to be learning how to pilot a ship with them. Taking up the challenge of becoming a pilot was going to be fun, and Zeke could hardly wait until the training started in the morning. Back at the university, Zeke had been an average student, just doing the minimum to get passing grades. But now things were different. Zeke resolved to give the training his maximum effort; he was not going to be an average pilot, but the best pilot he could possibly be.

How long did it take to learn piloting, anyway? "Computer, how long does pilot training last?"

"Time spent training varies, average duration is 180 days," said the computer.

Suggesting that if Zeke worked hard, he could complete training sooner. After the three hours on the simulators today, Zeke knew he could fly the ship in the simulation with more practice. But there was always more to it than that. Probably the aliens would have procedures to be memorized and who knows what else.

Kind of like the introduction to music course Zeke had taken his freshman year. It had sounded like an easy course, just listen to some music. No problem, right? Well, they had listened to music. They had also had to memorize music's history -- that had been a lot of work. Hopefully, the pilot training wouldn't be so boring.

And there was something else Zeke really liked about the Hirthal: the attention to individuals. The training base was huge, but Zeke had come on board and been given personal attention. Zeke's preference for being a pilot was listened to and immediately acted upon. The cook, or nutritional specialist, had recognized Zeke on sight, and had taken the time to design a diet just for him. And no one had requested Zeke to fill out any paperwork. The Hirthal really had their act together.

Zeke saw a movement out of the corner of his left eye, a yellow globe moved to hover over the waterfall; Zeke realized that could only mean someone was coming. Turning around, Zeke saw an alien walking down the narrow path towards him.

This particular alien was a species Zeke had not seen before. Obviously female, she stood over six feet tall. She wore the standard white pants, but the tank top left her narrow midriff bare. Completely hairless, her skin was an unblemished light pink over most of her body, except for a patch of pure white skin covering her belly. The white skin extended down under the pants, and ended in a semi-circle above her very humanlike breasts.

Her face was vaguely human, oval shaped with a small, rounded chin. Her eyes were large, featuring black pupils surrounded by dark red irises. An unusually wide mouth with thin lips, a flat rounded nose, and lack of ears gave her a distinct look. Not pretty in the human sense, but not ugly either, just different. Her body was another story -- large breasts and hips with a narrow waist gave her a figure any human woman would be proud of.

As she came closer, Zeke noticed her feet. Each foot had four equal sized toes with black toenails; she was walking on the balls of her feet. Not surprising, Zeke considered, due to her elongated foot and almost non-existent heels.

"Hi, I'm Zeke." Zeke stood up to greet the new arrival.

"I am Aurel. I do not remember your species." Aurel's voice was high-pitched, and her words seemed to have a faint echo as she spoke them.

"Oh, I'm an Earthling," said Zeke. "Earthlings are kind of new to the Hirthal, most don't even know about the Hirthal."

Aurel was a few inches taller than Zeke. Up close, Zeke could see a faint outline of nipples through the fabric of Aurel's top. How humanlike were her breasts, Zeke wondered?

"Are you looking at my breasts?" asked Aurel.

Busted! Zeke decided he had better apologize and hope Aurel was not too mad at him. But Standard was lacking a specific word for "sorry."

"I didn't mean to upset you," said Zeke. "My eyes just sort of wandered down there."

"Do you find me sexually interesting?" asked Aurel.

"Ah... yes," said Zeke, feeling himself blushing.

"Computer," said Aurel, "tell us the Earthling and Geltharv sexual profiles."

"The Earthling profile is an estimated 80-30-100-300," said the computer. "The Geltharv profile is 62-40-97-7. Physical compatibility is indicated."

Mvek and Sori hadn't mentioned sexual profiles, considered Zeke. Why was the Earth profile only estimated? Had the environmental and food profiles been estimated also? Zeke resolved to ask the computer about these things.

"Good," said Aurel, taking off her top.

The patch of white skin included her breasts, which Zeke noticed were very humanlike indeed. Aurel wasted no time taking off her pants and dropping them on the bench with her shirt. Zeke could see her groin was hairless too, the white patch of skin extended to the tops of her legs and continued between her legs as far as he could see. Aurel's sex looked normal to Zeke, at least from the outside.

"Why are you still dressed?" asked Aurel. "Do you need to perform an Earthling ritual before sexual activity?"