Having explained this, I wonder how the hell I ended up in this job. A couple weeks ago I was trying to explain to a giant reptile that grocery stores do not “steal” eggs from chickens that still have baby chicks inside them. She was personally offended by the idea that anyone would steal eggs from an innocent creature. Now, I’m explaining porn to a gang of hunky adult virgin men, one of whom I’ve already caught staring at my ass.
That reminds me. I have a bone to pick with Jen about how she never warned me that my new alien wards would be this attractive.
All five of the Kar’Kali scientists are over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and fit like Olympians. Their skin color comes in varying shades of a cool, silvery gray that shimmers iridescent in certain lighting. Kila, Mori, and Pakka all have thick black hair that shines and hangs pin straight. Vala has a striking head of silvery white that he keeps in a leather corded man-bun. Kiva has teal blue curls that flop around his boyish face, with dark blue freckles to match.
They are shockingly human-like, which shouldn’t surprise me considering their research revolves around the hope that human biology is a comparable match to their evolutionary ancestors. It’s funny how I’ve become more accustomed to reptiles, gelatinous blobs, pig-faces, and Skeletor look-alikes. These handsome figures, mirror images of humanity, seem to unsettle me more than the overtly ‘other’ species. I don’t spend much time thinking about the science that surrounds me at the facility, but their presence makes me wonder what humans will look like thousands of years in the future now that the intergalactic political world has grabbed us up into their web.
And that Kila? The one who said I cause him a ‘physical response’ and then had the gall to say that they can’t get sexually aroused? He needs to tell that little fact to the eyeballs he has attached to my ass. Anyways, this Kila is the worst—or should I say the best? His face reminds me of a sad-boy French model from a perfume ad, all in grayscale. He has this searing black-eyed gaze that burns through me every time he looks my way. And I notice him looking… often.
“So then it is this pill that causes the male to lose all control and act like that?” Pakka asks.
“No,” I say with a sigh. “I’m not a scientist, obviously, and I’m sure there’s hormones and stuff behind it all, but human desires just aren’t that simple. It’s not a switch that you turn on and off. It’s complicated. But when humans see someone they like, and they get to know them, or maybe they don’t get to know them and they just get to be alone together… Well, if there’s mutual attraction between them then they get aroused and it just goes from there. There’s no magic mating call that tells you this person is the one and then from that moment you change and go crazy. People do go a little crazy in relationships, but it takes time to feel that way. We don’t have a Kali’Ka here to tell us who to fall for.”
“Wow,” says Kiva. “That sounds complicated indeed.”
“It sounds nonsensical,” comments Mori.
“Let’s take a break,” Pakka suggests. “We need to begin un-boxing these deliveries and see if we’ve got everything here.”
They all nod slowly, no doubt processing the scattered load of information I’ve given them. Pakka begins ordering them around, and I am left sitting beside Kila, who taps away on his slim computer screen that they call a ‘tap-pad’. He is adjusting what looks like a timetable with dates all along the top of the chart. When he hesitates to think for a moment, he catches me watching him.
“I… I… should apologize for suggesting you are feeble minded,” he says.
“Suggesting? I think you just said it,” I tease him.
He frowns and puts the screen to the side. “Don’t mind me,” he says. “I have been in an odd mood today.”
“A mood? I thought Kar’Kali don’t get moods.” I point at the back of my own head, referencing the chip he has in his own.
“A common misunderstanding of our culture is that we do not have emotions. That is not the case,” he tells me. I wait for a beat, thinking that he must have something more to say about that. But he doesn’t.
“Why did they call me Ella-vi?” I ask him.
“It’s what humans might call polite. Vi in the Archaic language means sister. Since that word is no longer in usage, it simply refers to a respected female.”
“But you don’t want to call me sister?” I probe further. Maybe he thought I wouldn’t notice. Is he quietly insulting me? It’s so hard to read him. He calls me stupid, but then apologizes sincerely. He stares at me like I’m naked, accuses me of shooting sex hormones his way, and then acts like the very thought of mating disturbs him. Now he’s telling me he doesn’t want to use his own culture’s polite honorifics with me?
His eyes trail over me. I feel pinned by his gaze. “No, I do not,” is all he says.
Chapter 5
Kila
Pakka, I’d like to discuss a theory with you,” I say once we are back at the living quarters. It is just the two of us. Mori and Vala have gone to pick up meals from the cafeteria, and Kiva is wandering the complex floors making contact with all of our cohabitors and no doubt questioning them on various topics.
“Yes?” He hardly looks at me. All his attention is focused on crafting a new schedule based on Jen’s refusal to allow weekend access to the laboratory.
“Do you think that humans might have mating calls that they are not fully aware of? Perhaps pheromone secretions that their own scientific methods have not detected?”
“It is certainly plausible,” he says, pausing to look up from his tap-pad and consider it. “Their medical knowledge prior to Alliance intervention was flawed and incomplete. But what evidence has brought this theory to mind?”
“I was not feeling like myself today. I worry that I am having a reaction to environmental changes or some other stressor,” I confess.
Pakka turns to stare at me now. He has a painfully direct gaze and I know nothing will escape his notice in my facial expressions. “Some other stressor?”
There’s no getting around it. I’ll have to lay everything out for him.
“Ella,” I manage to blurt her name. “The human female who is to be our Handler. She has caused a strange response in me.”
“I have noted your temper the past few days has not been even, but I assumed the strenuous travel was the source of your irritability… But, a female? Hmmm, you must tell me exactly what your response was.” He sets his tap-pad down to listen.
“I… I… Pakka, you must promise to keep this between us for now,” I say, nervously.
He nods. “Certainly.”
“When I first looked upon her, I could not stop myself from looking. Her appearance appeals to me greatly, and I found myself paying close attention to her expressions and manner of speaking. When we spoke of Deviant mating today, I found myself wondering about whether she partakes in such practices — even imagining it.” I press my sweating palms against the front of my trousers.
It is as I expected. Pakka is horrified, but the first step to solving this problem will be discussing the darker implications of my body’s reactions.
“So, despite our current data and Ella’s own statement today, you believe she may be emitting pheromones?”
“We are biologically similar, are we not? It is possible. The only other explanation would be some sort of malfunction to our suppressor chips. And if this were the case, surely you would feel the effects of the malfunction as well.”