“Savhina. I told you already,” she replied. “You never listen.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right. Sorry, I forgot. I was thinking about Jorh. I hope he is OK. He’s always at the lab. It’s strange to hear he is sick, you know? But you know that, you’re his sister after all. You know him better than anyone. He is so dedicated to the project… He must be frustrated right now. He knows we can’t afford to lose any time. Talking about time, aren’t we gonna get to your friend’s too late? I mean, most people are having dinner right now, you know? Are you sure that’s what she said?”
Mahhzee wasn’t listening anymore. She had blocked out his brain waves. In fact, had he been less absorbed by his current blabbering, he would have been able to sense it. But he was still mentally talking when she spotted an open landing bay on one of the view decks below.
“There!” she said pointing at it. “Take that one. It looks perfect.”
“What? What do you wanna stop there for? Is this where we’re meeting her? That’s a sunset bay!”
The puzzled look on his face betrayed his naivety. He was still clueless after landing the vehicle and lowering the roof, when Mahhzee started talking about the mountains of Varrish and the beautiful colors the sun created over them, as it slowly came down towards the horizon, displaying its warm shades of reds, oranges, greens, and of course, its breathtaking purples, the color most couples waited for when they docked on a sunset pad.
“Most first dates happen on bridges such as this one, on nights like this one, all over the region, you know?” she said.
Gahneo finally realized they were not meeting Mahhzee’s friend when she leaned her head on his shoulder and, looking in the distance, asked, “So, what do you see, Gahneo?”
Looking down at the top of her head, he replied, “I see you, Mahhzee… I see you.”
She looked back at him, smiling, her purple eyes sparkling in the low sunlight, and as they slowly came closer, without a word, they felt each other’s body, passionately, savoring the strong attraction they had felt toward each other for years, but had never acted on. Then, sitting in a lotus position in the middle of their semi-translucent Vok and facing each other, they stared into each other’s eyes, their fingers interlocking. They were now making love. For the Kahnu, intercourse was a mental experience, first and mostly. The telepathic stimulation they were both engaged in, was complemented by a physical flow of pulses that ran through their bodies, using the sensory channels of the fingers, passing through the arms, and moving all the way to the brains. Like two giant vibrating light bulbs in the night, pulsating irregularly through different shades and intensity of brightness and colors, the two were at times in complete sync, when the light waves going through both bodies would pulse in complete rhythm with one another. The only sound that could be heard was a soft buzzing hum, not unlike the sound bees make when they fly. Sometimes, both humming sounds would sync in exact unison as well. That was when the humming would get the loudest. But Gahneo and Mahhzee were not the only ones indulging in the pleasures of making love in the dim light of Ogg, the largest of Kahnu’s three moons, now shinning above them. Nearby, similar displays of passion could be seen and heard all around. And so, like thousands of bees hovering over a field of flowers, the sounds of young Kahnus in love resonated over the vast Mohgvar ocean below. It was common for a couple to perform their love making in plain view of others. Everyone did so. Rare were the love making rituals performed indoors. Being outside and feeling the general euphoria of pleasures they could all telepathically sense, gave the experience a higher level of excitement. Everyone practiced public intimacy. Anything else would have seemed strange to a Kahnu. On Earth, the contrary was true, but on Kahnu, this intellectual sharing of pleasures between different individuals was considered the ultimate experience and was even advocated by the Elders of the great council. When they finally fell asleep inside the Vok’s cabin in the early hours of the morning, Mahhzee’s skin was still vibrating softly. She slowly fell asleep smiling, Gahneo lying behind with one arm around her.
Jorh was the first one in the lab the next morning. He was still upset for having missed the previous day, but also glad he was feeling better. Trying to make up for the lost time, he quickly busied himself setting up the gravity control experiment they had scheduled the day before. Serm walked into the room while he was finishing entering the test parameters in the Zarfha.
“Good morning Jorh! Glad you’re back. Feeling better?”
“Hello, Serm. Yes, much better, thank you. I’m almost done with the setup. We should be ready to start in a few minutes. Where are the others?”
“Are they not here yet?”
“They know we’re working today, right?” asked Jorh, surprised.
“I thought they were here already,” replied Serm. “I woke up late myself. I expected I’d be the last one in. It’s not like Gahneo to be late.”
“No, and it’s not like Mahhzee either. When did you last see them?”
“Yesterday, when we all left after you got sick. I went home. I assumed they did the same… Hold on, let me check on Gahneo… mmmmh… I can’t connect with him. He must still be sleeping… Did you try Mahhzee?”
“Nothing from her either,” replied her brother. Both of them oversleeping on the same day didn’t please him at all, he thought to himself.
Jorh knew Mahhzee liked Gahneo and it was reciprocal, but the two had never done anything about it in the three years they had been working together. He doubted anything was going on now. He always liked Gahneo. After all, Jorh was the one who had insisted with Garnak on having him on the team. But no matter how fond he was of his colleague, Jorh was too protective of his little sister to imagine any male Kahnu touching her.
Finally, Jorh spoke again. “I can’t hear either one! What is going on? We need to find them. I’ll go to Mahhzee’s. Go check on Gahneo at his place. Drag him out of his hover if you have to. We need to finish this today. We have lost too much time already.”
While Jorh was talking, both were already walking toward the passage leading back up the twenty-two levels they had just passed on the way down earlier.
Mahhzee lived below their mother, on level six of Klomag-Darh, close to the top. It took Jorh a good thirty minutes to reach his mother’s doorsteps. He was already mentally connected with her when he entered through the front door.
“No, I’m telling you, she is not here. I haven’t seen her since yesterday afternoon. She left right after lunch. She was talking about going to visit her friend Savhina in Klomag-Vaha. She mentioned Gahneo might be going with her. I thought that was a good idea. I don’t like your sister going there by herself.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” said a frustrated Jorh.
“Since when do I need to tell you what your sister does? She’s an adult, isn’t she? And I was told you were sick yesterday anyway. You can’t keep telling her what to do. She won’t listen anyway. She’s like your father, stubborn as a Klomag. I’m sure they’re fine. They probably slept at Savhina’s.”