Chapter 1

 Zeke moved the joystick with the smooth, easy, manner of someone well accustomed to its use. He manipulated the video game character on the TV screen, dodging attacks and taking out enemies. Zeke was not consciously thinking about the controls, but focusing on what his character needed to do: jump down the tube, dodge the pincer worm, grab the powerup, blast the worm, swim through the water exit, use megablast to get up speed so he wouldn’t drown before the first airhole.

Although the action looked frantic on the screen, Zeke’s mind was calm. The intense game was, in its own way, relaxing.

Walter burst through the door of the dorm room. “You gotta go with me out to the desert tonight!”

Walter, Zeke’s roommate at the university, was the embodiment of the word “geek,” even down to his taped glasses and pocket protector. Now sophomores, they had shared a room since they were freshmen.

“What’s out in the desert, man?” asked Zeke, calmly zapping three tentacle plants.

“Come over here and check this website out!”

Curious, Zeke paused his game and peered over Walter’s shoulder. The website had some cheesy pictures of UFOs and a story. In 1958 aliens had discovered intelligent life on the planet Earth. While the majority of the Earthlings were not ready for contact, a few Earthlings were. The aliens were interested in contacting those Earthlings, and provided instructions. It looked to Zeke like one of those just-for-fun websites, but it sure seemed to be pulling Walter’s leg.

“And all we have to do is go to one of these locations and call them up on CB channel eight,” enthused Walter, holding up a printout. “I already emailed we will be there tonight.”

“I don’t know, dude, I was going to finish my new game tonight.”

“Aw, you spend too much time on those games,” argued Walter. “It’s not good for you, you should get out and do something real for a change.”

Exactly what Zeke’s girlfriend had said before dumping him, Zeke mused. Maybe it was true, but Zeke wasn’t the only one with unreal interests.

“You mean real like calling up aliens on the CB in the desert?” grinned Zeke.

Zeke was trying to be cool, but Walter was acting kind of weird. Zeke figured he should go with Walter to make sure he didn’t get into any trouble. Besides, he just had to hear the response some long-haul trucker would make to Walter’s CB message.

“It took me two months of emailing to get this set up. If you don’t want to go, fine. But that’s no reason to make fun of...”

“Sorry about that dude. I’d like to go, but you left yourself wide open for that comeback and I just couldn’t pass it up,” laughed Zeke.

An hour later, Zeke drove his car along the dirt road, high beams illuminating the darkness. There was no one around for miles, and they hadn’t seen any traffic for the last half-hour. Zeke had been careful not to make any more jokes about the aliens; he knew Walter was into this stuff and didn’t want to hurt his feelings – sometimes you just had to be there for your buddies.

“The odometer reads 47.5 miles. Stop here and turn off the engine,” said Walter.

Seems someone on the website had done their homework, there was a pullout just where the instructions said one would be. Zeke drove his car well off the road before killing the engine and lights; he hadn’t seen any traffic, but parking too near the road at night would be stupid.

“Well, let’s do this,” said Walter as he grabbed the CB. Turning it to channel eight, all he got was a faint static.

“This is the Earthman looking to meet up with the Spaceman,” said Walter, “anyone got your ears on?”

Zeke suppressed a chuckle. The CB continued its static, but no response. Well, Zeke would wait a while before suggesting they go back. It was peaceful out here away from everything, with the cool night air blowing through the windows.

“All right,” started Walter, “I guess I really didn’t expect... Holy shit! Look at that!”

“That” turned out to be a ring of lights descending directly above them. The lights were dim, and whatever it was made no noise.

Zeke wondered if this was an elaborate practical joke. Maybe someone in a hot air balloon? Was Walter in on it? Did whoever was behind it really think they were going to fool anyone? Well, Zeke would play along.

“Zeke, I’m not so sure about this. Maybe we should get out of here,” said a panicked Walter.

“Be cool,” said Zeke, grabbing his car keys. “We came out here to meet the aliens. Let’s go meet them. Besides, you know the cars never start in these situations.”

Zeke got out of the car and looked around. The lights from the craft above them illuminated the rocky ground. There was no sign of civilization except for the deserted road. Walter was still in the car, peering out the window.

The illumination got brighter and Zeke saw the craft was still descending over them. As it got closer, he could see that the craft looked solid. The lights framed a depression in the bottom of the hull. Before long, the craft was directly over them, and came to a complete stop about 20 feet up in the air.

Seen from this distance, the craft was at least several hundred feet in diameter. If this was a prank, it must have cost a bundle. The craft was the classic flying saucer shape, dark grey in color, just like the pictures on the website. It hung in the air, absolutely silent.

The ship looked real. If it were, thought Zeke, he was about to meet some actual aliens. A little scary at first, but it could be awesome. They might get to see things most people only dream about. How much technology would the aliens show them? What would they look like?

A motion on the craft interrupted Zeke’s thoughts. From the depression, a grey circular disk about eight feet in diameter started descending. Zeke watched, spellbound. As it moved lower, he saw a slender railing come into view and someone, or something, standing in the middle.

The disk settled on the ground right in front of the car and Zeke got a good look at the alien. Any remaining doubts he had were banished – no one on earth made costumes this good.

The alien was about five feet tall and bipedal, but nothing like a human. Its skin was light blue, mottled with dark blue splotches, and completely hairless. The head was sort of like a mushroom; the top half was the same size as a human head, but the bottom half tapered off like it didn’t have a jawbone. Large unblinking pink eyes protruded from the sides, and a vertical slit for a mouth completed the front.

The head merged into the body without a neck, and the shoulders were almost non-existent. Two double-jointed arms ended in spindly fingers with no fingernails. Something that looked like a cross between gills and feathers covered the chest in a mixture of green and blue, stopping just short of its head.

The two legs were thin, and looked like they each had two knees spaced six inches apart, but tan pants and boots prevented Zeke from making a closer examination.

“I am Mvek,” started the alien. “My pleasure to meet you.”

The alien had deep, almost musical voice. Zeke noticed the mouth remained still, the voice seemed to emanate from the chest area, probably the gill things.

“You may be startled by the ship, by my appearance, by your stories about aliens,” continued Mvek, “Know I will not hurt or detain you. I invite you to step on this platform, tour the ship, ask questions, and listen to my words.”

Mvek stepped back, leaving plenty of room on the platform for his guests.

“Hi, I’m Zeke, and this is Walter,” said Zeke looking over at Walter, who was still in the car. “Hey Walter, come on man, let’s check out the ship.”

“Zeke... we should get out of here,” stammered Walter.

“Are you crazy,” said Zeke, “You would never forgive yourself in a million years if you ran off now – you know that. So suck it up, dude.”

“I don’t know about this. We shouldn’t be here,” said Walter, in a panicky voice.

“This was your idea in the first place, dude. You deserve to see it through. A friendly alien is offering to take you aboard his ship, you have been dreaming about stuff like this for years. How can you pass this up, man?” asked Zeke, opening the car door and pulling a scared Walter out, and dragging him towards the platform.

Walter broke free of Zeke’s grip and ran behind the car.

“If you don’t get on that platform right now, what are you going to tell yourself tomorrow?” asked Zeke, “You do what you have to do, dude. But me, I’m going before Mvek gets tired of us dicking around.”

“Sorry about that, Mvek,” said Zeke, stepping on the platform, “my friend Walter really wants to come along, he’s just freaked out.”

“Understandable,” said Mvek. “Walter, I will take Zeke aboard now. You will remain here, you will be safe.”

Mvek pressed on a small console and the gap in the railing closed. Now the railing completely enclosed the platform, preventing them from falling out.

“Wait!” shouted Walter, “I want to go too!”

Mvek opened the railing once again and a hesitant Walter stepped aboard. Walter kept as far from Mvek as he could, obviously frightened of the alien.

“Walter, you are safe,” said Mvek. “Know I will not hurt or detain you.”

Zeke knew Walter would soon get over his fears. After all, Walter knew the Enterprise deck layout by heart; he would forget all his concerns once they were aboard the ship. Likely, he would be asking questions non-stop.

“We will ascend to the ship now,” said Mvek, pressing the console.

The platform rose smoothly and silently upwards, and slid into the ship, becoming the floor of a small circular room. A strange tingling sensation engulfed Zeke’s entire body, but it quickly passed. Probably just the excitement, thought Zeke.

Lights came on in the room, and Zeke looked around. Dark purple walls made of a smooth, unfamiliar material surrounded them. A section of the railing slid back and at the same time a section of the wall opened, leading to a larger area.

“Walk with me,” said Mvek.

Zeke walked beside Mvek. Walter followed, but was still keeping his distance from Mvek.

This room was about 100 feet long, the ceiling a light blue. The walls had dark green stripes framing what looked like yellow cabinets with no handles. For some reason, there were two normal Earth-type vehicles: an old Ford truck and an RV.

“What’s with the vehicles?” asked Zeke.

“Other people of Earth were shown this ship,” said Mvek. “We invited them to come with us. We keep their possessions here. They may decide to return.”

“Will we get the chance to go with you?” asked Zeke.

Zeke was busy looking around as he talked with Mvek. Walter remained silent, but his eyes were darting everywhere.

“Yes,” said Mvek, “I will explain in a moment.”

They preceded through the storage room into a hallway. It was big enough to drive the RV through and twice as long as the storage room. The ceiling and walls were blue and green, the same colors as the storage room. Doors shaped like arches were interspersed along the hallway, most of them closed. Between the doors, alcoves featured a variety of plants.

Many of the plants were unfamiliar. One had hard pink disk-shaped protrusions covered with short spikes; it was surrounded by a white moss-like growth. Another looked like a sculpture, just a set of dark brown hoops halfway embedded in the ground. Some of the plants would not look out of place on Earth, they may have even been from Earth.

Mvek motioned at one of the doors and it silently opened, revealing a large circular room with a domed ceiling. The walls were a vivid white, with no visible joints, not even a smudge or speck of dust could be seen. The party stopped in the center of the room.

The door closed, blending perfectly into the wall. Something subtly changed in the room and suddenly all they could see was white; with no focal points, the room seemed an unending white expanse.

The light dimmed and a miniature representation of the Milky-way galaxy appeared, floating in the air. A hologram, Zeke thought. To one side, about a third of it was glowing brightly, the rest was dimmer. Mvek explained the glowing portion indicated the explored parts of the galaxy.

In this explored part, thousands of intelligent beings lived, on thousands of planets. Some of those beings had developed space travel. Of those, a small number were despoiling other worlds, enslaving their peoples, and just generally being a nuisance. Other beings, seeing this devastation, had pooled their resources in an effort to protect the weaker worlds. Mvek was a member of this group, collectively known as the Hirthal.

As Mvek was explaining, the image of the galaxy expanded, showing fleets of spaceships battling in space. Then it zoomed on to a small yellow star.

“Hey, that’s our solar system,” said Walter, breaking his silence for the first time since boarding the ship.

Some worlds, like Earth, were still in the very early stages of space travel. Most were unaware of the danger.

“Why haven’t you contacted our planet?” asked Walter. “Told them what’s going on?”

“In the beginning,” said Mvek, “the Hirthal contacted developing worlds. Knowledge of the threat caused panic. Some governments collapsed.”

With the number of developing worlds being protected, the protectors were stretched thin. Help was needed, and while the entire population of a developing planet might not be able to handle the truth, some individuals could. Those individuals provided the sentient beings needed to defeat the aggressors. Contacting those individuals proved a challenge, but was feasible through a variety of methods designed to isolate only those appropriate for contact.

“I request each of you to consider giving your help,” said Mvek. “You would choose a useful skill for running one of our ships. The Hirthal would train you in the skill. When training is complete, you would choose a ship.”

This was heavy stuff, thought Zeke. Being a crewman on a starship was definitely several steps above Zeke’s previous career path. Mvek was a recruiter, maybe like for the army, Zeke considered. Was there a catch?

“Can I be a captain?” asked Walter, suddenly very interested.

“So is this like the army?” asked Zeke. “Superior officers, enlisting for a certain amount of time, standing at attention?”

“I will answer both questions with one explanation,” said Mvek.

Mvek went on to explain there was no chain of command as they were used to. There was a captain, or captains, but the relationship between the captain and the crew was of an informal nature. The crew agreed to follow the captain's direction but nothing more than their agreement compelled them to do so. Should a crewmember decide to ignore the captain, he could, with no penalty.

“How can that work?” asked Walter. “What about if nobody wants to patrol some sector? What if they all just leave?”

“My task,” said Mvek, “is to find beings who will patrol that sector. Leaving is allowed. If no one can be found, the sector will not be patrolled.”

“After our training,” said Walter, “we will know all about your technology, your secrets. What if we left and took the information back to Earth?”

“I request you to refrain,” said Mvek. “Should your government or industry discover what you know, you might lose your freedom.”

Zeke tried not to think about that. He definitely would not be telling tales if he went back though.

What a way to end the week, Zeke thought. A lark had become a major turning point in his life, something he had not even thought possible. Now he could be on the crew of a starship, all he had to do was say yes. Well, and go through the training of course.

“Is Earth not being protected?” asked Walter. “Is that why you are here?”

“Earth is adequately protected,” said Mvek, “as much so as my own homeworld.”

And what would Zeke do aboard this starship? Engineer? Not likely, coming from (as he now knew) such a backward planet, it could take forever to get up to speed. What he would really like to do would be to fly the starship. That would be better than any video game, ever!

“Well, count me in,” said Zeke. “Where do I sign up?”

“I am pleased with your decision,” said Mvek, “You are signed up. I will continue the tour now.”

The door opened and Mvek led them back into the hallway and to the right. He motioned at another door and it opened.

“That’s great!” enthused Zeke. “Hey, Walter, you’re going to join up aren’t you?”

“I probably will,” said Walter, “just give me a minute to think.”

The next room looked to be a living quarters with a blue ceiling, light green walls, and a dark green floor. The room was circular, about 30 feet in diameter. An enormous round bed with light green covers filled a depression in the middle. A few of the smaller arched doors were on the far wall, and Zeke wondered what rooms they led to. Built-in cabinets covered the far wall, and a few built-in desks graced the near wall. Tables and couches looked more like sculpture than furniture. This was one nice living quarters, Zeke thought.

“Zeke,” said Mvek, “this room is your living quarters. While you are aboard this ship.” Mvek continued towards the door in the middle.

Mvek showed them the activation gesture, a twisting circular motion of the hand in mid-air. It worked for doors, computers, just about everything.

Mvek motioned at the door and it opened to reveal a small, bare room. Wall-length mirrors covered all four walls. What Zeke guessed to be a large sink was on one wall and in the center there were three oval depressions, each about a foot wide. Zeke had a good idea what they were, even aliens had to go sometime.

“Deposit your bodily wastes in the depression, then use the activation gesture,” said Mvek, picking up a glass of water and a small, circular object from the sink.

“This leaf will demonstrate,” said Mvek, dropping the leaf into the depression. It slowly sank into what had appeared to be a solid surface, disappearing.

Mvek filled the glass from the sink, then poured the water into the depression, where it disappeared into the surface. Zeke noticed there was no splatter. Definitely a nice feature.

“What happens if we fall in?” asked Zeke.

“I recommend you avoid falling in,” said Mvek. “You would sink in a few feet. You could get out with minor effort. You would suffocate if your head remained under.”

Zeke resolved not to fall in. It did seem like a lot of technology just to take a dump, but considering the sewage infrastructure and waste treatment plants on Earth, maybe not so different after all.

Mvek exited the restroom and proceeded to explain the rest of the quarters. The next room was larger and for bathing, with a sizeable tub and shower. The last room was a storage closet. In the main room, the deep cabinets had a variety of shelves to hold all manner of possessions; Zeke opened a few, they were empty. The built-in tables each had a holographic computer interface.

Having explored the living quarters, Mvek led them back to the hall and into another room. This room turned out to be the dining room, with the same blue ceiling and green walls; the colors must be an attempt to replicate the outdoor Earth environment, Zeke suddenly realized. The room, large enough to seat two dozen people, was empty.

“Are we the only ones aboard the ship,” asked Zeke.

“Eight other beings are here,” said Mvek.

“Do they all look like you,” asked Walter.

“Five are different species. Three are human. They have joined the Hirthal,” replied Mvek.

Mvek continued the tour, they entered an area filled with plants. The tall, long room had row upon row of plants growing close together in clear tubes on multiple levels. Zeke recognized corn, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, spinach, and others. Many he did not recognize, some had large pink or speckled leaves, others were just jumbles of spikes. A gentle, cool breeze blew his hair.

“You mean you don’t replicate your food?” asked Walter.

Mvek paused, took out a small oval object, and began manipulating it. Zeke figured it was some kind of small computer. Shortly, Mvek was finished. “Reconstructing consumables is dangerous. Small errors may cause harm to the consuming organism.”

They continued through the maze of plant life. Stairways provided access to the many levels of platforms. The plants grew in a colored liquid, held in place by what looked like cloth ties.

“So I guess you don’t have transporters either,” said Walter.

“Transporting a living entity is unethical,” said Mvek.

Walter and Mvek discussed the moral ramifications of transporter technology, but Zeke tuned them out. They had not run across anyone else so far. Was the ship really that big, or was Mvek hiding something? He thought back to their initial encounter and Walter’s reaction. Perhaps that was it, if Walter freaked as much as he did with just Mvek, how would he have handled six different-looking aliens?

Next on the tour was the control room of the ship. The control room was a half-circle, twenty five feet in diameter, with large viewscreens on the walls. Most had different views of the Earth from space. A few showed status information, with faint circles and simple moving shapes.

At the center of the room was a curved panel rising seamlessly from the floor with three comfortable chairs behind it. Aliens occupied two of those chairs.

One of the aliens was of Mvek’s race, the other attracted Zeke’s attention immediately, since he recognized it from the movies and the UFO abduction shows on TV. It was one of the Greys, four feet tall, humanoid, spindly grey body, big head, and black eyes. Looks like some of the abductees were telling the truth, mused Zeke.

From the viewscreens they looked to be in orbit around Earth, but Zeke had not felt the ship move. For that matter, they were still standing on the floor when they should have been weightless.

The aliens flying the ship looked up briefly, but did not speak to the newcomers. Walter was too busy looking around to speak anyway.

“I know English. The others do not know English,” explained Mvek.

All too soon, Mvek led them back to the hallway and into another room. This was a medium-sized, circular room with several seating areas. Three humans were having a discussion in one of the areas. Mvek sat on a couch in the nearest empty seating area. Zeke sat down beside Mvek, and Walter sat on the couch across from them.

“Our tour is concluded. Walter, have you decided?” asked Mvek.

“Oh sure! I’ll do it!” said Walter.

“I am pleased. I welcome you to the Hirthal,” said Mvek. “The Hirthal requires members to show civilized behavior. You must not harm other members. You must not force other members to perform disagreeable actions. I will explain more later.”

“I’ll agree to that,” said Zeke.

“Me too,” said Walter.

“I am pleased,” said Mvek. “We will contact one more human tomorrow. We will depart your solar system tomorrow. Our journey to the training facility requires six Earth days. You will learn our language.”

Mvek went on to explain the language they would learn was the galactic standard language, spoken by most known races. Standard was created expressly for ease of communication, was simple to learn, and pronounceable, with some limitations, by most sentient beings.

They would be able to learn the language in under six days with the help of mental stimulation technology, but the method did have some disadvantages.

“You will be disoriented during the procedure,” Mvek told them. “We start tomorrow.”

Learning standard was to be their first task and they would remain aboard this ship to do so. This would give them the opportunity to get accustomed to the other aliens, and see what life is like aboard a spaceship. They would not start the training process until the ship was underway, to give them time to reconsider.

“I don’t plan on changing my mind,” said Zeke. “But I’m worried about my family finding me missing, and freaking out. Can I tell them something so they won’t worry?”

“The computer maintains different approaches to your issue,” said Mvek, “use the gesture to activate it.”

Zeke resolved to do so before he went to sleep. No one could possibly notice him missing until at least a few days from now, probably not for several weeks.

The other humans had all been picked up earlier today. The three here were Susan, Dan, and Mike. They had gone through the same website as Walter, exchanging emails for a time, then coming out to meet Mvek.

Zeke noticed Susan and Dan were wearing similar clothes, a two piece white outfit that wouldn’t have been out of place on earth. Susan wore a form-fitting tank top and a pair of loose pants, almost like pajama bottoms. Dan wore a looser tank top and the same type of pants. Both Susan and Dan were barefoot.

“So are you guys wearing the official uniform?” asked Zeke.

“They were in the closet in our room,” said Dan, “so we figured we’d try them out.”

“It’s really comfortable,” said Susan, smiling at Dan. “The top acts like a bra, but you hardly notice it’s there.”

Hardly there at all, thought Zeke, noticing the outline of Sally’s nipples. A moot point though, Susan and Dan were obviously an item.

“This ship has some amazing things,” said Dan. “The walls in the quarters are viewscreens. You can set them to any color or even a moving image. And get this,” added Dan, “they don’t generate light. I dimmed the room lights, the images will still move, even if it’s dark.”

Dan and Susan explained the quarters and other things were controlled by communicating with the ship’s computer. It wasn’t a true AI, but it did have an advanced command recognition. All commands to the computer had to start with the spoken word: “Computer.”

Later, they met the remaining alien. She was wearing the same white outfit as Susan, and looked a lot more human than Mvek and the Greys. She stood about four and a half feet tall and had very pale skin. Except for the ears and missing nose she could almost pass for a human that had never seen the sun.

Her hair was short all over, but strangely divided into two sections. The top of her head was covered with a stiff, thick, light-green hair about three inches long. Her eyebrows swept back and joined it at the sides, where the hair thinned out into very fine shorter white strands.

Her eyes and mouth looked mostly human, but in place of a nose was a flat area with two horizontal slashes half the width of her mouth, one right over the other. Each slash opened slightly as she breathed. Her ears swept back, the outsides were covered with the fine hair, the insides were light pink.

Her body was shaped like a human’s, a very thin human, with almost normal-looking arms and legs, and five digits on each hand. But she had no visible breasts, and her bare feet were half again as wide as human feet, with three widely-spaced, equal-sized toes.

Mvek introduced her as Sori, the ship’s medical specialist. Sori did not speak English. Alien, but cute, thought Zeke. He smiled at Sori, not having a better way to say hello. Sori tilted her head and looked at Zeke; her face was expressionless.

Sori took the opportunity to give each of them an examination. All she did was pass a small tubelike device over their heads, not touching them. The device then emitted a complex hologram in midair, lots of circles and lines of all different colors. Sori carefully examined the hologram after she finished with each of them. She then spoke with Mvek in an alien language.

“Sori reports good health for all of you,” said Mvek.

Not having a common language prevented Sori from joining the conversation, and she soon departed. After a while, they wound up looking around the ship as they talked with Mvek. A few areas were inaccessible.

“Some areas are dangerous,” said Mvek. “Examples are ships engines, medical facility, crew dining room.”

Even though the different alien species shared many things, food was not always among them. Food for some species was poison for others. To make sure the humans did not come to harm, the crew’s dining room was off limits. As were other areas where the curious humans could inadvertently get hurt, especially when they were disoriented by the mental stimulation procedure.

“The mental stimulation procedure is unpleasant,” said Mvek. “Speaking Standard is necessary for communicating with others.”

“Hey Mvek,” said Mike, “how much do we get paid for working on your ships?”

“Approximately 150 credits a week,” said Mvek. “Food, housing, clothing, medical, and other needs are provided to everyone.”

“What’s a credit look like?” asked Mike.

“A credit is a number in a computer,” said Mvek. “It has no physical existence.”

Mvek went on to explain credits were not exactly like money. Credits could not be invested, earn interest, or be transferred to another. Credits were merely an accounting method to control distribution of resources. While all necessities were provided at no cost, credits allowed the acquisition of for-fun items.

Finally, as it was getting late, most of the group decided to get some sleep and headed to their quarters. Zeke was still too excited to sleep and wanted to have one last look around the ship.

He found his car in the storage bay and gave it a quick cleaning, since the backseat and trunk doubled as a storage bin and garbage can. Most of the stuff was junk and Zeke put it in the disposal. Zeke then hauled the keepers back to his quarters, putting his stuff in one of the empty cabinets.

Feeling the need, Zeke urinated in the elimination device, watching bemusedly as his stream pooled in the bottom and disappeared. Finished, he made the hand gesture and felt a strange tingling on his hand for a moment.

Interesting, that hadn’t happened before when he gestured at the door. Was there something wrong with the device? He examined his hand. It seemed just fine. Weird.

Zeke decided to check out the computer terminal, take a bath, and then get some sleep. He wanted to be well rested and alert for tomorrow.

Sitting down at the desk, Zeke used the gesture. No tingling, but a holographic display appeared. It was a three dimensional representation of several boxes, each having a label. On the first row: quarters, ship, health, food, contacting, emergency, Standard.

Zeke touched contacting and text appeared. There were a number of stories people had used, from the Peace Corps to becoming a monk. The story Zeke liked best was joining the Peace Corps, and going off to some remote country with limited communications. There were several sample letters with what looked like a solid story; Zeke added a few personal touches and quickly pieced together a brief email. He wasn’t sure how it would be sent, but this was alien technology after all.

His family would still worry, but at least he wouldn’t just vanish off the face of the earth. The truth would probably worry them more, even if they did believe him.

With nothing else to do, Zeke checked out the “quarters” box and found some really interesting things. The clothes cleaner was in the closet and would automatically clean whatever clothes he hung there. The room with the tub also had a “shower” that cleaned without water. He could have a holographic window showing any views he wanted anywhere in his room. The water temperature in the bathtub adjusted by computer command. His room cleaned itself.

The door opened and Walter walked in. “I just found out something you will want to know,” said Walter.

“I’m all ears,” replied Zeke.

“You won’t find any toilet paper. Just make the gesture and it will tingle you clean,” said Walter.

One mystery solved.

“You’re a lifesaver, dude,” said Zeke.

“No problem,” said Walter. “It’s pretty late, I’m going to get some sleep.”

After Walter left, Zeke explored the bathtub. It was an eight foot circular depression, about four feet deep, to one side of the room. The wall above had a geometric pattern with several two inch diameter holes. The sides of the tub were rough, offering good traction, but comfortable. The gesture started it filling with water that ran down the far wall out of the holes. Within minutes the tub was filled with warm water.

Cabinets in the wall held towels and bottles of clear liquid. Someone had been nice enough to label them soap and shampoo in English.

The water could have been a bit warmer, but it was OK for now. Zeke would remember to have the computer adjust the temperature next time. Right now he would just enjoy a good soaking. After he was finished with the bath, a gesture drained the tub very quickly, although there were no drain holes visible. Zeke noticed it was completely dry.

Since he hadn’t packed a suitcase, Zeke hung his clothes in the closet. He would have to sleep naked to allow his clothes time to be cleaned. Probably Mvek would get him some more clothes, but that hadn’t happened yet. The top of the mattress was a few inches above floor level, the floor around the bed well-padded.

Wondering what would happen, Zeke made the gesture over the bed. Covers which had been neatly tucked in now floated back gracefully, surprising Zeke. The bed was even more comfortable than it looked. Zeke got settled under the covers, and realized he didn’t know how to turn off the lights.

Not wanting to get out of bed, he tried the gesture, but nothing happened. There didn’t seem to be any switches on the walls either. Of course there was a way, but it certainly wasn’t obvious. Maybe the aliens slept with the lights on.

Oh, the computer. “Computer...”

The door opened and Sori walked in, apparently the aliens didn’t knock either. Sori walked over and stood by the bed, her face expressionless; she pulled her lips back, showing her teeth.

What was with the teeth? Maybe she was trying to smile, like Zeke had smiled at her before. Zeke returned the smile, not sure what Sori wanted.

Sori quickly took her top off and stepped out of her pants. With her top off, Zeke could see she didn’t have any breasts at all, not even nipples – she was completely flat-chested. Her groin had a small patch of light green hair, and Zeke could just see what looked like pussy lips. That part of her could pass for a human, from the outside at least. She stood before Zeke, her face still expressionless, and showed her teeth again. No way, thought Zeke. She couldn’t mean...

But what else could she mean? And why not, decided Zeke, feeling a little turned on. The only human female on this ship was Susan, and the only time he would get from Susan was what time Dan would be back. But Sori looked ready to give him some time right now, and Zeke wasn’t about to chase her off. Doing it with a cute alien would make the mile-high club seem like a boring lecture.

So what next? Right now Sori was just standing, waiting for Zeke to make the next move. Zeke decided he would go slowly, so he wouldn’t startle Sori and scare her off. He carefully pulled the covers back, sat up in the bed, and slowly moved his hand towards Sori’s hand. Zeke gently took her hand, keeping his grip loose. Sori closed her lips and tilted her head slightly, regarding Zeke.

Zeke gently tugged Sori towards him. Sori slowly walked up on the bed and knelt beside Zeke, looking up at him. She placed her free hand lightly on Zeke’s chest, Zeke responded by lightly touching Sori’s chest.

Zeke could feel her heart beating fast, he wasn’t sure if she was excited or if that was her normal pulse rate. Certainly he couldn’t tell from her face, it just didn’t show any recognizable human emotions.

Sori let go of Zeke’s hand and rose up on her knees, until her head was level with Zeke’s. She slowly moved her head towards Zeke, and Zeke wondered what kissing Sori would be like. At least they wouldn’t bump noses.

But instead of the kiss Zeke was expecting, Sori started tenderly blowing on his nose. It was nice, thought Zeke, but it tickled a bit, especially when Sori blew into his nostrils. Zeke noticed Sori was blowing on him through her breathing slits; she seemed to have excellent control of them.

Zeke figured he should reciprocate, but wasn’t sure about blowing through his nose. He could blow well enough through his mouth however, so he lightly blew on Sori’s breathing slits. Zeke guessed he was doing all right, at least Sori didn’t pull back. After blowing for a while, Zeke noticed Sori breathing heavier, so he probably was doing the right thing.

Enough of the blowing, Zeke decided, time to get back to familiar territory. Zeke brushed his lips against Sori’s, her lips felt dry. Sori quickly pulled her head back, so Zeke decided to work on mouth-to-mouth kissing later.

Zeke started caressing Sori’s sides with his hands while tenderly kissing her neck. Sori didn’t pull back, so Zeke continued. Not being familiar with Sori’s reactions or her language, Zeke couldn’t tell if Sori was liking what he was doing, so he decided to go slowly and explore her body.

Taking Sori by the shoulders, Zeke gently pushed Sori down on the bed. Sori complied as soon as she realized what Zeke wanted. Soon she was lying on her back, looking up at Zeke.

Zeke moved his caresses to Sori’s stomach and hips and trailed kisses down Sori’s chest to her bellybutton. At least she had a bellybutton, and a pretty sensitive one from the way she jumped when he blew into it. This was the best reaction he had gotten yet, so Zeke spent some time blowing and licking Sori’s bellybutton.

Sori hadn’t made any noises yet, but she was breathing harder than before. Zeke didn’t want to overdo the bellybutton, so he moved his attention down lower, to the light patch of green fur covering Sori’s pussy.

Since Sori’s legs were only slightly parted, Zeke started by tracing around Sori’s patch of hair and then lightly brushing his fingers through it. Zeke could see a few trickles of clear fluid leaking out from between Sori’s pussy lips, so he just had to be doing things right.

At least he hoped this meant Sori was excited; the events had gotten Zeke pretty worked up.

Sori’s pussy lips were completely closed, resting against each other; her pussy still looked normal to Zeke, but he wanted to get a closer look. Zeke gently pulled Sori’s legs wider apart and moved between them. First running his fingers lightly over Sori’s slit, Zeke slowly parted her pussy lips, revealing flesh the same light pink as her inner ears.

Now Zeke could see some differences. Sori didn’t have inner lips, her little vagina was open and leaking more clear fluid. About once every few seconds her vagina would squeeze closed and then reopen, forcing more fluid out. As for her clit, Zeke couldn’t even find the clitoral hood; just smooth pink flesh.

Zeke lightly blew over Sori’s entire groin. Sori didn’t react other than to take a very deep breath and let it slowly out, so Zeke blew some more and started lightly, very lightly, tracing the opening of Sori’s vagina with his fingertips. This brought on another deep breath from Sori. Encouraged, Zeke moved a finger inside of Sori’s vagina, which quickly squeezed closed around his finger.

Sori immediately sat up, pulling Zeke’s finger out of her vagina. While Zeke was still trying to figure out what he had done wrong, Sori started pushing at his shoulders. Zeke allowed Sori to push him down on the bed, so he was lying on his back like Sori had been before.

Zeke’s cock had lost some of its rigidity from his concern when Sori had jumped up. But Sori started gently stroking it back to life, and soon Zeke was fully erect once again. When Sori saw he wasn’t getting any bigger she quickly straddled him, placing her pussy directly over his cock and slowly lowering herself onto it.

She stopped the minute his glans touched her pussy, adjusted Zeke’s cock with her hand and continued lowering. Sori got just the tip of his cock inside her vagina when Zeke felt her vagina squeezing his glans. The feeling was incredible.

Sori quickly placed both her hands against Zeke’s stomach and held herself still for several seconds, breathing hard and trembling. Sori then lowered herself a little further onto Zeke’s cock, until the next contraction of her vagina brought her to a halt once again.

Halting at every vaginal contraction, Sori took several minutes to fully lower herself on Zeke’s cock, and Zeke loved every inch of her warm, tight vagina. Finally, after Sori managed to engulf Zeke’s entire cock, she rested for a short time, breathing hard and trembling, her chest and face noticeably flushed.

Zeke lightly touched Sori’s hips, but Sori gently removed his hands. She started rocking her hips back and forth, slowly at first, then picking up speed. Sori’s deliciously tight pussy was warm and wet; Zeke could feel it caressing every inch of his cock, driving him towards what was sure to be a monumental orgasm.

Every so often, Zeke could feel Sori’s vagina contract, but Sori was no longer stopping, she kept up the pace right throughout the contractions. She moaned softly at each contraction, the first sounds Zeke had heard her make tonight. With each vaginal contraction, Zeke felt waves of pleasure flow through his cock, bringing his orgasm that much closer. He knew it wouldn’t be long now.

Suddenly Sori’s vagina contracted harder than it had before, but only for an instant. Then it relaxed and immediately contracted again, the contractions starting to come so fast Sori’s vagina was fluttering around Zeke’s bursting cock. Already near the edge, this was too much for Zeke. His impending orgasm erupted. Zeke let out a moan and he started his own contractions, forcing his cum deep into Sori’s pulsating vagina.

Zeke looked into Sori’s eyes. She stared past him, unseeing, as her contractions continued for a little longer. As her vagina settled down, Sori slowed her rocking, eventually becoming still. Sori then rested for a while, breathing starting to slow, her vagina still stretched around Zeke’s softening cock.

Sori slumped forward and lay upon Zeke’s chest, her body going limp. She was surprisingly light, Zeke noticed. After staying in the same position for some time, Zeke concluded Sori had no intention of moving. That was fine with Zeke, Sori felt soft and warm resting on top of him. The way Sori was lying on him, Zeke could feel her heart beating faintly. It was much slower than before.

Eventually, Zeke realized Sori had fallen asleep. He should probably pull the covers over the both of them and go to sleep himself. Not wanting to disturb Sori by struggling with the covers, Zeke tried the gesture. The sheets pulled themselves out from under Zeke’s legs and gently came to a rest, covering both of them.

Zeke gently wrapped his arms around Sori, trying not to wake her.

“Computer,” whispered Zeke, “lights out.”

The lights went out. As Zeke’s eyes adjusted to the dark, he noticed a simulation of stars overhead. Sleep came easily.