When they had gotten dressed again and reclaimed all their ag material, Peebo arranged transport with a red-caped Forlani in the main terminal and they took their load to what turned out to be a kind of agricultural experiment station on the outskirts of the sprawling city. When they had finished unloading and seeing to the saplings, Klein turned to Peebo and asked, “Where do we bunk? I need an extra-long bath to start with, before I go see Entara.”
“Well, my bunk is in here,” said Peebo, pointing over his shoulder, “But you’re staying at the mahäme according to her directions.”
“Why the hell do I want to go to a mahäme? I thought that was some sort of a nunnery. That’s the last thing I need. I just want to be with Entara. Alone. For a long time. Understand?”
“Look, pardner, I have very little say here and she, apparently, does. I’m sure everything will be explained. Our transport driver has already got the coordinates by message and she will take you. I’ll get word to you when I can, and don’t forget your promises in the circle.” Peebo turned away and started to open the door to the building, but then looked back at Klein. “And remember, take your time and be sure about things before you run off half-cocked. Maybe that’s not the expression. But keep in that smoldering mind of yours that the future of a lot of people rests on your shoulders and you absolutely cannot act free-lance. Good luck.”
Klein was in a foul mood when he got back into the passenger compartment of the transport as it started down an avenue. Eventually his ire and frustration calmed enough for him to notice that the driver was watching him with a sense of interest that he could only associate with Forlani back in the houses of Domremy. “Are you comfortable Mr. Klein?” she purred.
“My name is Himmelreich,” replied Klein, suspicious of some deception.
“Oh, please don’t worry. I am of the Eyes of Alertness and would never betray you. I am taking you to our mahäme and several people know you are coming. Everyone will be so excited when you get there, because there is not a single member of the matriline, I swear, who has not heard of you. I am so honored to be your driver.” Then she added with a special emphasis, “If there is anything at all that I can do for you, please let me know. I really, really want to be a friend. My name is Canthli, by the way.”
“Thank you, Canthli,” Klein politely responded, not knowing exactly what to make of what seemed to be a proposition, as they say on Earth. Why had Entara leaked the news of his visit to so many people who didn’t seem to have any reason for knowing about it? It seemed counter-intuitive and dangerous, unlike her naturally methodical train of thought. And why go to this stupid monastery anyway? There must be better ways to conceal their plans than to make it some kind of theological occasion. How were they supposed to renew their love when a whole sisterhood was spying on their intimacy? All he wanted now was to hold her again. He could feel his mind gravitating despite himself toward the delicious thought of their bodies enfolding once again, and perhaps forever.
Canthli interrupted his reverie. She passed a card through the little partition that divided the compartments. “Please accept this and never hesitate to call me. If you press the orange dot twice, it will instantly alert me and I will try not to be too far away.” He must have looked so stupefied that she added after a few seconds, “Mr. Klein, perhaps I have made an error by being so bold. But you must excuse me. We all admire you so. The whole matriline, but others who have also heard, too. You are… a very special individual.”
Klein would have liked to ask Canthli more questions to try to orient himself, but the truth was that he was so confused by the conflicting welcomes he had received on this planet, being buggered by a giant bully of an octopus and then offered whatever he wished by the first female he encountered, that he was having trouble articulating anything. Moreover, bashing at the doorways of his consciousness was the thought of Entara, a happiness that he had so long denied himself to contemplate and that now seemed just beyond his grasp, almost within the reality of his miserable life. He watched the leafy thoroughfares of the city of Plambo’ slide by, but his thoughts were filled with images of his most cherished partner, projections of exactly how she would look now that she had given birth to children, stage rehearsals of how they would greet each other, the first words they would say, the first time in ages that they would again touch each other. When the transport began to slow and moved through a stone gateway, he realized that the huge structure they had been driving by for some time must be the mahäme. It was almost a city in itself. Once they had passed through the gateway, low buildings, mostly of stone, stretched away in several directions, alternating with tall Forlani lawns and flowering gardens. It was not like any monastery he had ever seen in Germany, but resembled in some ways a university or some kind of science center. And there were no nuns’ habits, just luxurious purple Forlani flesh and honey-colored fur.
The vehicle stopped in front of a pavilion where three tall Forlani females, attired in yellow caftans and hats that looked like chefs’ toques, awaited him. As Canthli watched him emerge from the door, she gave him a look that can only be described as a reverent smile and wished him a very happy stay. He guessed the three figures on the steps must be some kind of Mothers Superior and it turned out he was right. “Greetings friend Klein!” they said in chorus. The one in the middle then went on, “We are the mahäme-ki and we will be responsible for your service and your comfort, when you are not actually in the company of Entara-para.”
Klein wondered what made Entara a para, but instead pursued another line. “What do you mean by service, exactly?”
“It is a natural question,” answered the second of his greeters. “On this world, no visitors are accepted without some kind of service role. It is especially important that we respect this custom because to do otherwise might attract undue attention from the Brotherhood, which can be very nosey. You will be asked to serve in the Training Center. This mahäme, like all the others, has one, but we like to think ours is particularly fine. This will only occupy a small part of the day and in the intervals, we will arrange for you to speak with Entara-para and help her with certain matters.”
“What kind of training do you think I can provide? My usual profession on Domremy is very… violent, and I understand that all but a few people on this planet are very disinclined to that sort of thing.”
“That is certainly correct,” responded the third of the leaders. “In fact, though, you can be very useful in the Training Center, which prepares young women, among other things, for off-planet work in a way that you are already familiar with.”
“Do I understand that you want me to help prepare young Forlani to be companions for alien males?”
“Precisely. You see, Mr. Klein, you already have a rather unique status here. We have come to learn that natives of Earth for some reason seek to be very secretive about their most intimate contacts, but that is not the case among us. At least among females. In particular, if a woman has been pleased with an intimate encounter of any kind, whether or not it is what you would term sexual, it is essential and customary to share that experience. It is the basis of our song, which for our females is the highest and almost the unique form of art. Rest assured, Mr. Klein, that Entara was most extremely pleased by you and that the songs she has shared in the matriline have revealed to Forlani entirely new facets of intimate relationship and forms of happiness that were previously unimagined.”
“I never would have thought she would kiss and tell,” muttered Klein to himself.
But his first interlocutor quickly corrected him. “Yes, indeed. Kissing in fact is a large part of it. A whole chapter of the new epic. But by no means the only one. The way you and she were able to develop, without any apparent plan, a whole panoply of informal interaction – no, perhaps that is not the right expression – let’s see, how did she put it in that ballad? Fun, yes, that’s it.”
“And playfulness,” added the third Forlani. “Play is what you call this almost gratuitous quest for
joy without shame, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” agreed Klein, “I suppose you can look at it that way. So permit me to ask, is it right to say that you want me to help these young women learn how to be happy with their customers?”
“Just so. But also to share the happy feeling with them. Perhaps that is the most important of all. Because, of course, you understand that for us Forlani there can be no happiness that can even compare with the happiness of birth. That is a supreme happiness that is reserved for only the fortunate few,” she added wistfully. “Yet now we are facing very modern challenges and the matriline must develop the very best and most excellent interplanetary relations in order to improve things right here. The Training Center is the focus of our efforts. And Mr. Klein, in the near future, you are the focus of our training center.”
“What you are asking me…” Klein paused as he saw the Forlani equivalent of raised eyebrows, “Perhaps requiring me to do is a bit unusual, particularly for human males. I certainly have no personal experience doing this kind of thing. There are feelings to consider…”
“Come, Mr. Klein,” said the second speaker, “It is very obvious from the songs that you are an individual who does not allow himself to be pushed around by his own feelings. Just the opposite. That is one of the things that make you so special for Entara-para. The depth of sentiment that you are able to deal with, often to suppress, is now legendary. So is your generosity. We feel sure that you will not refuse. Now please follow us to your quarters, where you may rest.”
There was no arguing with these women who were insisting that he perform a kind of work that would only be considered appropriate on Earth for a gigolo or a pimp. They obviously had a case for why it was important to them, even on a planetary scale. He would just have to soldier on in a way no soldier had ever done before. Well, not recently anyway, he mused, as he recalled bits of ancient history about Caesar and Alexander. In boca al lupo, as the Italians say.
Klein was relieved the next day when he had his first session in the Training Center that he was not expected to perform before crowds, like some interplanetary Chippendale dancer or porno king. Instead, his training was organized more along the lines of an Oxford tutorial. He would meet for a couple of hours with small groups of Forlani, from two to a half dozen, in what resembled a comfortable studio apartment from 20th century Earth. Furthermore, while all the students did not hesitate to touch him and even sometimes to fawn over him, he quickly discovered that they had already had theoretical and practical initiation into all the usual sexual positions and techniques. Though each of them insisted on some kind of coupling, they were mostly more curious about what is usually called foreplay and, later on, afterplay. Klein could see right away that he might have to organize a whole seminar he would call “Kissy-face and cuddling.”
Of course, as he felt a lithe young body sidle up to him, he instantly pictured her mentally as Entara. Training was like lying with an unending succession of Entaras, each slightly different, but variations on the same loveliness. He caught himself before long using these trainees as sexual guinea pigs for what he hoped to accomplish when he was finally together with the one he longed for. This left him with a weird feeling of double infidelity, as though he was simultaneously cheating on Entara and on his students. Was he violating some kind of dimly-instilled professorial taboo? He quickly dismissed this impression when he realized that almost every conventional educator would be dying to trade places with him.
Despite this accommodation with his role as trainer, Klein could not help thinking from minute to minute, Why hasn’t she gotten in touch with me personally yet? Was she in danger? Was she under constant surveillance? Was this training supposed to be some kind of blissful appetizer to their reunion? When Peebo called him on a private communicator from the ag station, he managed to give a Crop Talk explanation of what he was up to. It must have sounded like a humorous version of a stud report. To his astonishment, Peebo did not seem in the least bit surprised about this turn of events, nor about Entara’s silence.
Finally, after several days, one of the trainees who had recently shared his bed arrived at his quarters in the striped skirt that Klein now knew signified a messenger and told him that the next day he would be escorted to a meeting with Entara in the Orchards of Fataarey. His puzzlement aside, Klein was brimming with excitement when a couple of older women from the mahäme walked him several kilometers to a huge enclosure filled with trees where he found Entara along with a few other females sitting on some stones. She was wearing a gauzy top garment that looked like a cross between a teddy and a very short apron, for it contained a row of pockets around the hem. Klein was amazed at her radiant beauty, apparent notwithstanding the changes in her body. The fur on her body and limbs had turned a darker, chocolaty brown, she had developed a slight belly, and her torso, which appeared to have bulked out a bit like a featherweight on steroids, definitely showed the contours of a double row of six mammaries. When he gazed at her face, he almost gasped because her eyes had turned from an almost scarlet red to a shade between brass and gold. Peebo had made him read some files about post-childbirth changes in the Forlani physiology, but he was taken aback and delighted just the same.
All these realizations actually took some time, because the first thing Entara did was to leap up, hug him tenderly, and kiss him on the lips. The others who were waiting with her watched them as though they were seeing the love scene from an opera. “Oh, Klein, darling, it’s been so hard not to come running to you first thing, especially when you were right here in the city, in my own home mahäme, where I’ve slept so many nights. I hope you like your room because I picked it out for you myself to be right next to the fragrant kumugathria blossoms.”
Klein didn’t dare confess that his humble Earth nose had barely noticed a vague, sweet scent. “Then you can imagine how I’ve felt not being able to come to you.”
When she had lingered a second time on his lips, she gave a little nod that might be the Forlani form of a blush. “These are my attendants and cousins Viga and Spomonthi. I needed to have some lookouts, even though this orchard is off limits to our males and is now closed to the public. I need a little exercise because I may be giving birth again before too long, and I thought we might have a refreshing run and pick some fruit. Would you like that?”
“As long as I can stay with you, I wouldn’t mind mucking out a stable of cattle.”
The girl attendants fanned out to either side of the couple as they trotted down a lane in the orchard. Klein had noticed that the two women from the mahäme were no longer nearby, and wondered if they were standing guard by the entry. Entara seemed to be very concerned about intruders. Klein was nothing if not well rested after his week of training and had long ago shaken off the aftereffects of prolonged space flight, but as he accelerated his pace, he was shocked when Entara seemed to be pulling steadily ahead of him without visibly picking up her stride. He had naturally observed that Forlani were quite agile in short bursts, but on Domremy they tended to stick near their houses. He had never suspected that in the open these creatures had such speed and stamina. What happened next bowled him over completely.
As they neared a tree, Entara suddenly yelled out, “Look, ripe fruit!” and with one bound soared up twenty feet into the air, grasping one branch with one arm and another with her tail.
Right. The tail. Evolution. It had to be more than a neat sex toy. He panted as he approached the tree trunk.
“Hop up! Aren’t you hungry?” He didn’t know what to answer. He could see out the corners of his eyes that the two attendants had stopped and were giggling a bit as they watched.
Suddenly Entara became aware of them herself and a look of recognition came over her face. “Oh no, I forgot. Here, catch.” She tossed him a few apricot-like fruit one by one. Then she filled the pockets in her garment with more, before coming down to him as easily as a fireman descending a pole. She called something to the attendants and they went off in search of a snack
of their own.
“Just like your females, pregnancy makes me hungry.”
“But on my planet, it doesn’t turn you into an Olympic athlete.”
“Oh, I could jump at least that high before. That’s what our ancestors did every day. Before the catastrophe. Forlan was more or less covered with trees then, the old scriptures say, and the scientists have proven it’s true.”
As she bit into the fruit a drop of juice collected on her lip and Klein impulsively leaned toward her and kissed it off.
“You’ve changed,” she said with a wink. “You’ve gotten better. I bet the trainees are having the time of their lives. Soon my songs won’t be the only ones heard about the lover Klein. Perhaps theirs will become more famous and mine will drift off where forgotten songs and memories go,” she mused, stretching her arms to the sky. She turned to look him directly in the eyes. “I’ll never forget, though.”
“Entara, when can we be together? All the time on the Kagahashi Maru you were all I could think of. I know I have to confront your husband, but all I could do was imagine getting you in my arms again and never letting go.”
She got very serious as she said, “Klein, schatz, the world has come around. We both have to change what we expect. Childbirth overthrows everything for us, and I don’t mean just on the outside. The mating, the piercing, causes us to transform. Some organs actually move and others that were never there appear. If we spent the night together, it would not be the same, because I am not the same.”
“I don’t care about that. I don’t care if you grew ten arms and you were covered with spines. You’re so much more to me.”
Life Sentence (Forlani Saga Book 1) Page 20
