Volume 2: Gamma-17, Chapter 2.4

I was expecting to feel a little guilty about leaving Eve behind in the hotel room, but I was honestly having a really tough time thinking of that little scout-form as Eve. Part of Eve, sure, but really I couldn’t help but think Eve was just back aboard

The Radiance

and I was basically down on Entana without her.

Surprisingly, dinner on hyper-advanced alien planets was a rather simple affair. Zyno and I met up with Tillia and Runa and decided to eat at the hotel restaurant—not wanting to go out and get into too much trouble just yet. The interesting part of eating at an alien restaurant that served hundreds, maybe thousands of different races was how they personalized menus for their patrons. First, they scanned the person’s biological makeup at the table; they determined their primary evolutionary pathway and started from up there. Mammalian, reptilian, aquatic, insectoid, even mineral or flora-based people all had their own special menus. Next, they took a tiny blood sample from a device that did the procedure so painlessly, I didn’t even know it happened until Tillia laughed at me and gestured for me to look over the now unlocked menu. From there, I could see any mammalian dishes that had been authorized as non-toxic to me. Interestingly enough, Tillia and I were both mammalian and could eat nearly everything on each other’s menu, while Zyno was a strange mix of reptilian and aquatic and had an entirely separate menu. Then lastly, Runa the rock-alien was mineral-based and had a surprisingly limited menu—basically just a couple kinds of rocks or soil prepared in what was supposedly an appetizing way. I expressed my concerns over her lack of options and asked if she wanted to find someplace else, but she laughed it off at said that was how it was for nearly all mineral-based aliens; their biological need for nutrients was drastically different from anything I could ever understand.

It was the first time I’d spent with Doctor Runa without Evie around to make her nervous, and while a little shy, she was incredibly nice. Her skin was light blue and looked every bit like stone-flesh, with that purple gem mohawk most of them had, and she was slender with surprisingly feminine curves. It was hard to say if she was actually attractive or not, but she was pretty in the way a gemstone shimmering in the sun would be.

I ended up ordering that blue-meat steak I’d seen Tillia eat before from the synthesizer back on

The Radiance

, and my companions were all impressed I’d been so bold to try something so foreign for a human; they’d all half-expected me to just get some protein paste.

I was glad we didn’t talk about work, the mission, or even Eve; it was the first time I really felt normal since I’d left earth. It seemed like everything happened so fast, I had to hit the ground running. And even the day-to-day aboard

The Radiance

was so drastically different from what all I was used to back on earth—from the schedules to the food and all the crazy technology. It was nice to just hang out and have dinner with some friends.

Speaking of schedules, Entana had 28-hour days, so we’d have to adjust accordingly and record everything with planet-time now—another quick adjustment I’d have to make. Though I was a little eager to get back to a more normal routine; I was surprised how much I missed my 24-hour days now.

Dinner was fun, we ended up mostly talking about college or how we wound up in our current fields—the aliens rather interested in the whole firefighter-paramedic thing I’d done back on earth. But once the delicious food was gone, Tillia insisted we continue the party at the hotel bar.

After another scan, I was given a vastly varied menu of alien alcoholic beverages, and while Tillia wanted to let loose and celebrate the start of the mission, everyone else agreed it would be best to take things easy until we were properly settled.

I had to say, I really found Tillia attractive, and not just the fact she was like a gorgeous space-babe, but she was a great mix of smart and bubbly fun. Sometimes I almost forgot she was a research doctor with how easily she let loose, and how openly she flirted with me, but then she would surprise me with crazy insight and talk about something scientific that went miles over my head. I wasn’t sure what alien universities were like, but I’d bet she was some sort of sorority-party girl back in the day. And she was one of the nicest researchers when it came to Evie; she treated her more like a person than most of the others.

Once we had some free time, I was definitely going to take her up on the offer for a proper date.

Plus, I really wanted to befriend her shapely red ass—get to know it on a personal level.

Feeling a good buzz now and not wanting to go too much further, we decided to all call it a night, so Zyno and I headed back to our room, and right before we separated from the girls, Tillia gave me a quick kiss on the check and offered me a really sexy ‘

see you tomorrow

’. Once back in the room with Zyno, he favored me with a wide grin.

I rolled my eyes, “What?”

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His smile grew, “You and Tillia, eh?”

I laughed and shook my head, “Not yet, but soon.” I gestured to the room around us, “Be prepared to go kick rocks at some point.”

He laughed too, “Just be careful; I’m not sure how a human’s stamina compares, but revorans are known to be pretty wild.”

Lucky me, but then a thought crossed my mind, “So, it’s pretty common for different alien races to hook up—or, er,

couple

, I guess?”

He waved my words off as though it was so obvious, “Of course, what with Imperial technology, there’s no biological makeup that can keep two people from, uh, coupling, as you say.”

I took my shoes and socks off and sat on my bed, “When you say biological makeup, you talking about parts?”

He nodded, then got out of his jumpsuit so he was just in a tank top and shorts, “Yeah, but you shouldn’t have to worry about anything with Tillia—you’re both mammalian after all.”

“And if we weren’t? If our parts didn’t align?”

He shrugged as he sat down on his bed, “There’s toys, surrogates, suits, adaptors, simulators and even artificial reality. Trust me, when two people want to fuck—even if their parts are

wildly

different—they make it happen.”

“And there’s no social stigmas against dating certain races or species or whatever?”

“No not at—

well

, I guess it depends. For the most part no, but there are some races out there with ancient feuds, those couples would probably get some push-back from their families.”

“Even within the Empire there’s individual feuds between races and planets?”

Zyno shook his head, “Planets, no; those grievances get squashed once a civilization joins the Empire. However, people don’t easily forget their history, and even galaxies apart, some prejudices survive. Usually only happens with races that both existed within the same solar system or sector and warred with each other before they joined up with the Empire—

or

the Empire had to step in to prevent the destruction of the sector.”

“Damn, does that happen often?”

“Nah, it’s incredibly rare for multiple intelligent species to evolve within a single system; usually any fledgling ancestor races are wiped out with only the strongest surviving—only one path for evolution remains.”

“Then what about children? Can alien species crossbreed?”

“Very,

very

rarely—one of those freak things were two species evolved a thousand lightyears apart, but under such similar conditions to allow them to create offspring together. Like a one in a billion thing there.” He explained.

“So what do alien couples do? Okay to not have kids, or more technological nonsense?”

He smiled at that, “More technological nonsense. Usually, they’ll take some genetic material from the father and clone it into compatible sperm to inseminate the mother; it’ll end up the same race as the mom, but at least the offspring inherits

some

genes from the dad.” He shrugged, “That, or adoption—or a sim family.”

“Sim family?”

He nodded, “Yeah, like android children—little more than pets at that point. But to each their own.”

I flopped onto my floating bed, finding it almost dauting how much freedom there was out in the Empire, “I keep wanting to say the future is crazy—like I’ve been flung forward through time—but it’s still the exact same year back on earth, where cancer has no cure, we’re burning fossil fuels, and AI is mostly used for porn.”

“Plenty of alien porn available, if you’re interested.” Zyno said, and I could hear the smirk in his voice.

I smiled too, “I’ll focus my efforts on Tillia first.”

We watched a little TV together before calling it an early night—a morning briefing awaited us bright and early tomorrow. We got ready for bed, and I decided to check on Evie in her little containment unit. I deactivated the stealth-mode to find her little scout-form still snoozing away, all curled up on itself—couldn’t even see her glowing eye.

A small part of me was almost irritated with her—like I thought she was throwing a tantrum or something. I really had no idea what all the scout-form could do, but from what everything everyone said about the Predazoans, that little black tentacle-orb was a direct link to Evie. Sure, it wouldn’t be the same as being with Eve’s core form, but I’d taken care of her when she was in a similar form before—back on earth in the terrarium. But then my irritation melted away, and I realized this wouldn’t be the same at all anyways; I couldn’t open the containment unit, couldn’t feed her chocolate out of my hand, couldn’t actually play with her at all. Eve was probably bored back on

The Radiance

, and whatever perception she had from the scout-form would be even more boring locked away in the box. She probably put it to sleep purposefully so she wouldn’t have to see out of it—so she wouldn’t perceive through it.

After all, what even was there for her to see now?

I placed my hand on the containment unit, wishing the real Evie was down here with me—missing her more than I thought I would. I was sure she was mad at me—really had every right to be. But I would do everything in my power to make it up to her when I could,

“Goodnight sweet-thing.” I said gently, then turned on the containment unit’s stealth-mode again, then flopped into bed one final time.

As usual, without Eve around, sleep was unfortunately elusive.