Untitled (4 page)

   Jhuun bowed his head. "I stopped reading them also. Too many names I recognized. Friends from the homeworld, colleagues, family. My mother was lost to me when the war began."

   "I'm sorry to hear that," Gabriel said. He fiddled uneasily with the thrumming cables. "Do you have anything like a wife, or kids, back on your homeworld? On another station?"

   Jhuun waved a hand in front of his face—it was the Eunnoian way of shaking one's head in the negative, and one of the first examples of Eunnoian body language Gabriel had come to recognize. "No children," Jhuun said, "I had a romantic partner on the homeworld, Thoara, who was not able to follow me when I was assigned to Section 27. We ended our union. It was not my choice."

   "War's pretty rough," Gabriel said quietly. "It's hard to keep a relationship going in times like these. Don't be too hard on her."

   Jhuun avoided his gaze then, suddenly terribly interested in watching the power generator quietly humming on the floor of the workshop. "Thoara…is a male name."

   Gabriel blinked dumbly for a moment, until the full meaning of the phrase sank in. He pretended to nonchalantly poke at the M-Alpha, wondering why his pulse had begun to race. Suddenly, the world inside the workshop didn't seem so quiet and simple anymore.

   Before Jhuun could wonder at his silence, he dumbly echoed the alien's previous response to the same statement. "Ah."

   As the days went on, Gabriel quickly discovered he and Jhuun—and Bianca and Xhani—had something very important in common, a deep-seated hatred for the station food and a nostalgic remembrance of their old favorites from their respective homeworlds.

   "I didn't think the protein mush would taste exactly the same on every station," Gabriel said. "Big surprise. I'll tell you, I sure miss chicken shawarmas. I don't think I've had one since University, back on Earth. Best thing in the world."

   He was picking through a box of hydraulic screwdrivers held up to him by Bianca. At the other end of the workshop, Jhuun and Xhani were bringing in a small-scale shield generator to use for tests with the M-Alpha. Gabriel had offered to help drag in the heavy piece of equipment, but Xhani had firmly shooed him away. There was no doubt that she was the queen of her engineering wing.

   Bianca smiled. Her long hair had been gathered up into an oversized bun atop her head. "Before the war started, I worked in a building in Montreal—that's a city on Earth. There was a shop downstairs that sold the most amazing cinnamon buns. I'd love to have one again."

   "Myself, I haven't tasted lokun since I left the homeworld," Jhuun said, grunting as he hoisted his end of the shield generator. Xhani didn't so much as grimace as she hefted her side of it.

   Gabriel watched them work as he absently picked through the tools. His mind couldn't help but wander, as he watched the way Jhuun's body moved and strained, toward more illicit thoughts. Gabriel had accessed and read the basic information about Eunnoian culture and society, enough for him to learn about customs and history and language, but the translated texts provided to Humans were woefully lacking in one very important, to Gabriel's carnal Human mind, subject matter—there was very little biological information provided, and as a result, no information at all about Eunnoian sexuality.

   Such musings didn't come as a surprise to him. Humans especially seemed to hold a fascination about aliens and their after-dark activities, and while he certainly hadn't found the Wreeth sexually attractive, he certainly had been curious to know how they functioned, just as he now found himself curious about Eunnoians, though he wondered if his curiosity would have been quite as intense had it not been for the knowledge of Jhuun's previous romantic relationship.

   Gabriel had already noted that Eunnoian females had no breasts. But what other differences existed and what similarities did they share? His eyes were drawn to Jhuun's back as he bent to hold the generator, to the spine comprised of vertebrae that were not Human in shape, to the dark indigo skin that Gabriel already knew did not have the texture of Human skin. He wondered if there were any spots that were sensitive to touch, any secret erogenous zones on that nearlybare body, wondered if there was anything interesting, or even remotely familiar, biologically speaking, hiding beneath those light shorts.

   He thought back to the Eunnoian couple in the Idea Room, to the brief touch of one's fingertips to the throat of the other. He wondered how it would feel to touch Jhuun in that way—was the touch meant to be as erotic as it had looked?—and he wondered how the alien would react. He suddenly felt a suffusion of heat to his face, and to his groin, and quickly shook his head to clear it of such inappropriate thoughts. No doubt Jhuun would be horrified if he knew what Gabriel had been picturing. Surely Eunnoians had a bit more mental self-control than he did.

   "What did you call it, a lokun?" Gabriel asked, clearing his throat. "What is it?"

   "It's a small animal," Xhani said. "Covered in— Jhuun, be watchful, you're going to hit the wall— covered in black fur, much like the kind on your head. It can glide in the air."

   "Sounds kind of like a bird," Gabriel said, picking out the screwdriver he wanted from the box. "But with fur instead of feathers."

   "If you must compare it to an animal from your planet, then yes," Jhuun said. Together he and Xhani set the generator down, facing the nose of the M-Alpha. "We catch it, remove the skin and roast it. Very delicious."

   Xhani made a trilling sound of disagreement. "It is hardly worth weeping over. I would, however, return to the homeworld for a dish of nakhema."

   Now it was Jhuun's turn to make the trilling sound. He made a fist and pressed it to his stomach in disgust. "That is a dish I do not miss."

   "What is it?" Gabriel asked. At his side, Bianca laughed gently.

   "It's a sea vegetable," she explained. "I was able to taste some a while back. It reminded me of spinach, but with a much stronger texture. It's…an acquired taste."

   "Quite healthy," Xhani said, looking quite officious, and quite offended that Jhuun did not share her tastes. "And a delicious dish, when prepared with the correct spices."

   "I would prefer a taste of lokun," Jhuun said.

   Xhani imperiously muttered something in Eunnoian that made Jhuun smile, and she went to join Bianca's side as Gabriel went to crouch by the shield generator. He tried not to blush as he sat close to Jhuun, recalling how just moments he had been terribly preoccupied by thoughts of the mechanics of Eunnoian sex.

   "Have trust," Jhuun said, glancing over to assure himself that Bianca and Xhani were now conversing and not listening in. "I would gladly eat the protein dishes from the cafeteria rather than taste nakhema again. You must never taste any dish offered to you by Xhani."

   Gabriel chuckled. "I'll remember that."

   "Maybe, if things change in the future," Jhuun said, his gaze dropping to the generator. "I'll take you to visit my homeworld. You could try some lokun."

   "That'd be nice," Gabriel said. The thought of getting away from the space stations and back on solid ground somewhere was nice. "And maybe I'll treat you to a shawarma one day. Maybe you'll find that chicken tastes like lokun."

   "I would like that very much," Jhuun said. He smiled that strangely wide smile of his, and for a moment, Gabriel wondered if he'd just agreed to a date.

   Gabriel stretched and groaned, wincing as his back popped, cracked and made a few other alarming sounds. A whole day twisted underneath the shield generator had left him sore, though the pulse of the hot water from the shower had somewhat helped loosen his tense muscles.

   He stepped across his quarters over to the bed, still naked from the shower. It was late and he was way overdue for bed and had gotten into the habit of sleeping naked. It was simply more comfortable in the heat of Section 27.

   Gabriel lay across his bed, fanning his arms out, letting his body air-dry. As his thoughts drifted sleepily, he found himself wondering what Jhuun did to prepare for bed and whether or not he also slept naked. Before he knew it, he had already formed an image in his head of the alien sprawled out on his own bed, skin shining with moisture, sighing in delight as the air dried his body.

   With a start, Gabriel opened his eyes, staring up at the plain gray ceiling. Without even realizing it, he'd been running a hand down his bare stomach, gliding dangerously close to his cock. With a huffing sigh, he raised his head and saw that he was already fully erect. What the hell had
that
come from?

   Glaring, he rolled off the bed to pull the bedcovers free, sliding underneath the warm blanket, trying to ignore the heat that suffused his body and settled tantalizingly in his cock. He hadn't had sex since Marcus passed away, hadn't even thought about it, or wanted it, and now look at him. He'd had prurient thoughts about coworkers before, he'd had them about aliens. But to be suddenly having them about Jhuun was just…weird.

   Enough already. He'd feel humiliated beyond anything if Jhuun found out what Gabriel was thinking about him. He rolled over, listening to his pulse hammering in his ears, and tried to will sleep to come.

   Despite his previous restless night, Gabriel had to admit that being back in the workshop was pleasant, especially on this particular morning.

   Jhuun's laugh had nothing Human about it—it was breathy, stuttered—Gabriel found he quite enjoyed the sound of it. Even if Jhuun
was
laughing at him.

   "I apologize, I apologize," the alien said between breaths. The ridges on his chest were fluttering animatedly as he laughed. "I mean no offense. But your accent is amusing."

   "Hey, I'm new to this," Gabriel protested, peering at his companion from his supine position. "You weren't kidding when you said your language was hard for Humans to learn."

   He was lying under the shield generator, adjusting the frequency. They had tried all week, and so far failed, to find a shield frequency that would succeed in blocking the M-Alpha's deadly particle beam. Gabriel was optimistic now that his latest modification, covering the shield with a negative-ion barrier, would fare better. A few more adjustments and they would be ready to start testing.

   "What did you say the phrase meant?
The sky is
violet?
At least teach me something I can use."

   "Something you can use?" Jhuun mused. He was busy on a nearby console, though Gabriel could see him press a finger to his temple. "Mar
shriva kusa rhan-taa."

   "Ma
r shriva kusa rhan-taa," G
abriel repeated. He knew he had massacred the pronunciation. Jhuun had been attempting to teach him Eunnoian phrases all week, a clever way to pass the time as they tediously fiddled with and tested shield frequencies, but he found the syntax completely counter-intuitive to his Human brain, and on top of that, he realized that most of the sounds were near- impossible for him to reproduce. There was a whispery trilling sound that accompanied certain consonants, including the first letter of Jhuun's name, that he couldn't seem to master with his clumsy Human tongue.

   He supposed it wasn't such a bad situation. Jhuun had shared the story of a brief stint on Section 6, early in the war, where he and other Eunnoians had been matched with the Fnorn. They quickly realized, after a few days of attempted language training, that the Fnorn were completely unable to form the trilling phonemes and the Eunnoians were unable to form the highpitched nasal sounds required to speak the Fnorn language. The groups had been quickly reassigned.

   "I see you smiling," Gabriel said, waving a finger out from underneath the shield generator in Jhuun's general direction. "What did you just make me say? It's not obscene, is it?"

   "No," Jhuun said with another stuttered laugh. "It means…it does not directly translate, but the idea is that you are telling someone you can see the stars in their eyes. It is a compliment. You would tell it to someone you care for."