Untitled (7 page)

   But that
was t
he problem, wasn't it? Jhuun was not Human. Maybe his seeming nervousness was merely a reaction to recent events, maybe, like Gabriel, he was still coming down from the shock and the adrenaline of the recent attack and destruction.

   So what was Jhuun thinking, he wondered? Was he feeling the tension, the awkwardness of the lengthy silence between them? Gabriel wanted, as much as it pained him to admit it, to say something, do something, to take the plunge. But damn it, though he and Jhuun had grown close these last few weeks, he was still at a complete loss as to what he could do at the moment to admit his feelings. He'd lived for years among the Wreeth, but was no expert on deciphering their non-verbal cues, and the comparatively brief time he'd spent with Jhuun and other Eunnoians left him with even fewer experience, no frame of reference whatsoever.

   Physical attraction cues were something borne out of years of common sociological evolution, and Humans still managed to screw it up on a regular basis.

   So what did Jhuun expect as he stood there quietly staring? Was he signaling his interest loud and clear to the point that a passing Eunnoian would laugh at his cluelessness?

   Would a touch on the arm, on the chest, be considered offensive at this moment or welcome? Or laughably virginal? What about a kiss? He hadn't seen any of the Eunnoian couples kiss. Were they reserved or was it something that was simply not done? His mind was spinning with conflicting thoughts, and somewhere in the tangle he remembered the Eunnoian couple from the Idea Room so long ago, one stroking his lover's throat, and Gabriel's own fingers twitched at his side as he debated whether or not to mimic the gesture.

   And hell, what if it
was
welcome, then what? Would Jhuun expect to be invited inside Gabriel's quarters? How the hell were they supposed to have sex when Gabriel couldn't even figure out—

   He wanted to grab the tall being in front of him and kiss that strange mouth, tell him he wanted more, wanted
him.
And at the same time, he remembered the shock of watching Section 26 erupt in a fireball on the screen, the thought that Marcus' ship had exploded in much the same way and…no.

   The only reason he was even considering pursuing Jhuun was because of the fear, the adrenaline, making him jumpy and bold. When reason returned, he would regret his actions.

   "Thank you for walking me back," Gabriel said. "I'll go get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

   Jhuun blinked slowly. "Very well. I will contact you when the Fnorn weaponry arrives. Goodnight, Gabriel."

   Was that disappointment he detected in Jhuun's otherwise melodic voice? He didn't take the time to dwell on it, shuffling backward into his quarters and gently closing the door behind him, holding his breath until he heard Jhuun's retreating footsteps down the hallway.

   He breathed out slowly. Definitely for the best to end things before they'd begun, before he'd had a chance to make a complete and utter fool of himself, ignorant as he would be in front of a naked, amorous Eunnoian.

   Gabriel flexed his aching shoulder and reached for the back pocket of his shorts. He felt the round, hard rental chit that Kurt had given him. He'd kept it close by, telling himself he would pop down to the Specialty shop after a shift to get an action movie or a video game to play in between shifts. Just that and nothing else. Because it was not needed.

   He pulled out the chit and sighed. Or was it?

   With this in mind, Gabriel quickly showered and dressed, leaving the engineering belt on his bed, and patted the front of his short-sleeved shirt to make sure the rental chit was still there.

   He left his quarters, glancing up and down the corridor to see if Jhuun or Bianca or Xhani were around, but there was no one to be seen. He boarded the lift alone and was soon joined by two men wearing red operations and communications belts. Both appeared glum as they discussed the morning's recent broadcast, declaring the destruction of Section 26 and the subsequent destruction of the captured M-Alpha.

   Though Gabriel felt a pang at the thought of Section 26, he smiled to himself as he thought of the M-Alpha sitting safely in the workshop. He hoped the Maedrom had overheard the broadcast, too.

   He stepped off the lift as it reached the common level, striding past the cafeteria and into the Idea Room. It wasn't very crowded, to Gabriel's relief. A small group of Eunnoians were sharing breakfast by the viewport, and three Human women were laughing heartily as they played a board game at a nearby table.

   No one paid him any attention as he walked

into the Specialty shop.

   The shop was very much like the one on Section 14—rows of candies and other Human and alien treats lined the front part of the shop, and about two dozen rows covered the wider back part of the shop, offering a selection of video games and movies for all tastes.

   It didn't take Gabriel long to locate the adult movie shelf. The bottom half offered several Human titles, catering to all orientations and several exotic tastes. The top half housed the Eunnoian titles. Gabriel swallowed nervously, staring at the shelf from afar.

   "Need some help? Trying to find something good to watch?"

   Gabriel nearly jumped out of his skin, turning to see the short Human woman who had come up behind him. She was smiling sweetly, with a blue headband around her short brown hair and a hand-written name tag pinned to her shirt, identifying her as
Alice.
Only the Specialty shop employees wore nametags.

   "Um," Gabriel said. "Actually, yes."

   He gestured vaguely in the direction of the Eunnoian titles and surely Alice was wondering why he was acting so nervous. There was nothing shameful about renting pornography, but of course she wouldn't know the reason behind his rental.

   Alice nodded, still smiling, and stepped up on her toes to grab a disc box from the shelf. "This one's really popular," she said, holding up a box with the image of a female Eunnoian wrapped in a sheer veil, sitting seductively on a rock while a male watched from afar. A piece of tape had been placed next to the Eunnoian-script title, and read
Kaano's Secret Adventures 3.
"Among Eunnoians and Humans. It's subtitled. We don't have part one and two though, sorry."

   "Thank you," Gabriel said, suddenly plagued by a vision of Kurt squirreling the disc away to watch it. "But I'm looking for something with…males-only."

   "Oh, of course," Alice said. Quickly, she replaced the box, and grabbed another title. "Then you definitely want this one. It's my personal favorite."

   As she handed him the box, Gabriel felt a rush of heat to his face. There were two male Eunnoians on the cover, one with dark green skin who was reclining in a shallow pool of water, and the other, with indigo skin that reminded him of Jhuun, lay within his arms. The translated title proclaimed it to be the story of
Kozhi and Nhor in
Yaalhi Pond.

   "This one's also subtitled," Alice said helpfully.

   "Thanks," Gabriel stammered. "I guess I'll take this one."

   The transaction completed, Gabriel clutched the box to his chest as he exited the shop, suddenly quite anxious to regain his quarters before running into Kurt, or worse still, Jhuun.

   Luck was on his side, at least until he stepped off the lift back into the engineering wing. To his horror, Bianca was striding down the corridor toward the lift, and she smiled warmly as she approached him.

   "Gabriel!" she greeted. "How are you feeling? How is your shoulder?"

   "Much better," Gabriel said, pressing the incriminating disc box closer to his side, praying she wouldn't catch a glimpse of it.

   "Excellent. Did you hear the broadcast this morning? The official announcement was made that the M-Alpha has been destroyed. Let's hope the Maedrom heard it, too, shall we?"

   "Absolutely," Gabriel gulped.

   "I'm going to the cafeteria now, have you had breakfast?"

   "I'm fine. Just came back from there. In fact, I'm going to get a nap in before my shift starts."

   "Good idea, I'll see you later in the workshop then," Bianca said. She patted him lightly on the arm and continued down the corridor to the lift.

   Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief and practically jogged over to his quarters before he ran into anybody else.

   Alone now, Gabriel sat on his bed and stared at the box cover. It looked harmless enough, rather like a Human pornographic movie. He wondered if the cover photo was meant to be appeal to Humans as well as Eunnoians. He wondered if Jhuun had ever seen this movie. And he wondered if he was going to like or be horrified by what he would see once the movie started. Intellectual curiosity. That's all it was.

   He opened the box, slid the disc out and popped it into the player, switching on the broadcast screen. He rubbed his palms against his bare knees, suddenly nervous as he waited for the movie to start. The title,
Kozhi and Nhor in Yaalhi
Pond
, appeared in Human script against a black background.

   Eunnoian movies, he quickly saw, were similar but in many ways different from Human movies. For one, there was no background music— probably a blessing, considering the nature of the movie—and so far, it appeared the movie was one continuous take, with a single recording device following the action. In addition, he quickly noticed there was no dialogue, only voiceover narration, and he wondered if that was a convention of erotic movies or a rule of Eunnoian cinema.

   Gabriel watched for about ten minutes, following the subtitles as the rather mundane story was established—it was nice to see that thin plots were a universal constant of pornography. Kozhi, the green-skinned male from the cover, paced through calf-deep water and began a soliloquy about the deep emotional reasons behind his visit to Yaalhi Pond. Gabriel soon stopped paying attention to the subtitles and instead focused on Kozhi. He was tall, like all Eunnoian males, and wore a lightly-colored sarong around his waist. The supple ridges at his collarbone and ribs fluttered as he walked.

   Growing a little restless as he sat on his bed, Gabriel skipped ahead a few minutes, until Kozhi finished walking through the shallow water and entered a small construct that appeared to be made of sandstone, surrounded by thick trees that seemed rooted directly in the water. The level of lighting suggested it was dawn, or this may have been the usual Eunnoian sky. It was a rather beautiful setting, if Yaalhi Pond was a real place, and Gabriel wondered if Jhuun's home looked anything like this.

   The other Eunnoian, Nhor, also clad in a sarong, seemed to react positively to Kozhi's arrival, and the two shared a voiceover dialogue as Gabriel studied Nhor. He really did look like Jhuun, with the same indigo skin and green eyes that were maybe a bit darker, though just as large. Gabriel was about to skip ahead again to get to something more explicit, when the voiceover stopped, and after a moment of quiet, Kozhi reached over and—Gabriel held his breath— gently stroked Nhor's throat with his fingertips.

   The gesture, in this context, was unmistakably erotic and sent a hot bolt of arousal straight to Gabriel's groin. Nhor moaned, the first sound actually uttered by one of the actors on-screen, and his neck arched back to give his partner more access. Gabriel released the breath he'd been holding as Nhor reached over with shaking fingers and reciprocated the gesture.

   Kozhi then reached up to cover Nhor's fingers with his own, pulling the hand away from his throat, encouraging Nhor to follow him outside the sandstone construct. Once outside, Nhor was gently pushed against the striated trunk of one of the trees. Water lapped at their feet as Kozhi leaned over the other, running a long tongue over the clearly sensitive skin of his throat. Nhor was obviously enjoying it—or else the actor was doing a very good job at pretending he was—as he shuddered and scrabbled at the trunk with long tapered fingers.