by Arthur C.
“Only if we’re very still and completely quiet,” Johann warned. “The ackyongs will not mate if they think they’re being watched.”
The climb to the top of the nearby boulder pile reminded Johann acutely of his age. No longer steady even in a thee-point stance, twice he banged his sore knee on a rock. His lower back was in extreme discomfort by the time Franzi and he finally reached a point from which they could see half a dozen potential ackyong mating locations.
But Johann did not complain, even to himself. Franzi’s radiant, expectant smile made his aches and pains irrelevant.
Twice, while they were waiting, Franzi started to talk. Both times Johann shushed her immediately. When they had been at their observation post for almost fifteen minutes, they heard the sound that Johann instantly recognized as coming from the vertical reed clusters on the back segment of an ackyong. Franzi’s face brightened and Johann reached over and put his finger to her lips.
The sound was answered by a second tone, similar but slightly higher in pitch. Johann and Franzi looked in the direction of the sounds. Backing into the sunlight on a bare patch of ground very close to their boulder was a small green ackyong, its colorless vertical reed cluster undulating to produce a response to a second call from its unseen companion.
As Johann and Franzi watched, the green ackyong exchanged four more tonal sets with its companion and danced six to eight meters backward, leaving room on the dirt patch for the entrance of the most magnificent of these creatures that Johann had ever seen, a huge, bright purple ackyong whose reed cluster was thick with elements and filled with an astonishing array of hues. Franzi’s eyes widened as this pursuing ackyong strutted into view.
The smaller green ackyong stopped retreating as the purple creature increased the tempo of its song. A few minutes later, in full view of their human observers, the two aliens lay touching each other side by side on the ground, their reed clusters now intertwined and in constant motion, creating a distinct and original new song that was harmonious even to human ears.
Franzi was uncharacteristically subdued the rest of the afternoon. She hardly said a word as she helped Johann down the most difficult portions of the boulder descent. The two of them enjoyed one more eruption of the periodic geyser and then Johann suggested that they should start traveling again. He had hoped to cover about half the distance between the geyser and the nepp colony, but after they started walking it was obvious that his knees were too sore for such a long trek. Franzi and he stopped no more than an hour away from the geyser.
After they ate their dinner and Franzi spread their mats, side by side under the star-filled sky, she indicated what she had been thinking about most of the afternoon. “When I started my period a few months ago,” she said without any introduction of the subject, “you told me, Uncle Johann, that I was now a mature woman and able to bear children. You also stressed to me that for us to survive as a group, it would be necessary for me to mate both with Rowen and Siegfried, in any order I desired, to make certain that there was sufficient variation in the nature of our offspring.”
Franzi stopped and looked at Johann. He said nothing. “I think I’m ready to start having babies, Uncle Johann,” she said, “but I have some concerns and a few questions. You’re the only one I feel comfortable enough to discuss these things with.”
“What would you like to know, Franzi?” Johann said gently when he realized she was waiting for him to reply.
“First,” she said, “do I have to do anything special to make a baby, or is it enough for me to accept the man’s penis inside me?”
“You don’t have to do anything special, Franzi,” Johann said. “However, the man must deposit his semen—it comes out of the end of his penis and contains the sperm that fertilizes your egg and makes a baby—or you can’t conceive the child.” He thought for a moment before continuing. “The semen doesn’t come out automatically. The man must be what we call sexually aroused first, which means that you will help the process if you kiss him or are generally affectionate in other ways.”
Franzi sat for a few seconds and pondered what Johann had said. “Will the man’s penis hurt when it enters me?” she then asked. “When I feel myself down there, it doesn’t feel large enough.”
“The first time or two you may experience some pain,” Johann replied, “both because your partner may not be gentle enough and because you have a thin membrane inside which will break and bleed with the first solid penetration. Once you become more relaxed, you will stretch in the genital area during sex, and will probably find the whole process quite pleasant. Many women do.”
A slight frown appeared on Franzi’s face. When she asked her next question, there was an overtone of fear in her voice. “Rowen’s mother died trying to give birth to a baby, and you have told me that there can be a lot of pain even with a normal delivery. Is there any way of knowing, ahead of time, how hard or easy it will be for me to become a mother?”
Johann pushed aside his painful memories of the deaths of Serentha and Beatrice. Unfortunately, he said to himself, we really have no choice in this situation. If our group is not to perish altogether, Franzi must produce children.
He leaned over and hugged the girl. “If we were back on Earth, Franzi,” Johann said, “there would be doctors, specialists who could examine you and assess your capabilities for having children. They might be able to tell you whether giving birth would be easy or difficult for you. But none of us has any of that special knowledge.”
Franzi still looked unsettled. “I do know one good thing, however,” Johann added. “Ease of childbearing is supposedly an inherited characteristic and neither your mother nor your grandmother had any difficulties with the birthing process.”
Apparently encouraged by this last comment of Johann’s, Franzi’s face brightened as she played absentmindedly with several thick strands of her long hair. She was clearly thinking now about another serious subject and trying to decide how to talk about it.
“Rowen has never had sex, has he?” she asked suddenly
“No,” said Johann, suppressing his surprise, “he hasn’t.”
“Has he ever talked to you about it?” she said.
“I have tried twice to discuss the subject with him,” Johann said, “but Rowen is shy and very easily embarrassed… We haven’t made much progress.”
“So because of his experience, Uncle Siegfried would be more likely to know what he’s doing? And make it less difficult for me?”
Johann squirmed a bit on his mat. He felt he was being placed in an impossible position, being asked to choose between his son and his grandson. “On the surface,” he said at length, “what you said would appear to be correct. But I must point out that I have no firsthand knowledge about Siegfried as a lover… My best advice is that you should choose as your partner the person with whom you are the most comfortable, because sexual intimacy has many emotional aspects that we aren’t even considering now.”
“But if I did that,” Franzi said quickly “then I would choose you, Uncle Johann. You are by far my closest friend. And I can talk to you about anything.”
Johann was momentarily speechless. His mind was a jumble of strange and confused thoughts for a couple of seconds. Finally he reached over and took Franzi’s hand. “I appreciate your affection,” he said, “and you know how much I love you. But there are many practical reasons why I am not a candidate to be your sexual partner. I am now an old man, for example, and there is some doubt if I even have the ability to make you pregnant. During our years here, Vivien and I made love many, many times and she never conceived. That suggests—”
“But Vivien was older too,” Franzi interrupted. “Couldn’t it have been because of her that you had no children other than Siegfried?”
“Possibly,” Johann said after some hesitation. “But we have no way of knowing.”
They fell silent. For some reason Johann thought of Maria, and her unusual request to be his second wife. If I had accepted her offer he said to himself,
then life among our group here would have been radically different. There would also be many more of us remaining.
“Franzi,” Johann said at length, “I will admit that I am flattered by your suggestion. But please accept my judgment on this issue. Your choice for the father of your child is between Siegfried and Rowen.”
“All right, Uncle Johann,” she said.
Johann lay awake for several more minutes, anticipating that Franzi might ask some more questions. When she said nothing for a long time, he leaned down close to where she was lying on her back on her mat. He could tell from the rhythmic movement of her chest that she had fallen asleep.
TWO
THE NEXT MORNING they made the long walk to the nepp colony, stopping for lunch when they were no more than half a kilometer away. Franzi chattered throughout the trip about nothing in particular. She never once mentioned their conversation from the previous evening.
Johann was already thinking about the nepps, and the ackyong slime. On his last visit to the colony, two or three months earlier, he had met the new nepp leader. It had been unclear to Johann, however, even after a long gesture-and-chatter conversation, if the nepps intended to provide any ackyong slime for the four humans. Johann was hoping that they would not be forced to gather their own eggs, as they had sixteen years previously. It had been during one of the encounters with the ackyongs that year that Vivien had fallen, running down a slope, and injured her hip.
Johann and Franzi entered the nepp colony at lunchtime, when the animals were gathered together in the central plaza. Beside one of the queues for lunch, a group of four or five pups were engaged in what appeared to be a nepp version of tag. Franzi joined in immediately, racing after and capturing one of the smaller brown creatures in her hands and then petting its smooth skin with her gentle fingers.
“They’re so cute, Uncle Johann,” she said, unaware that half a dozen of the larger black-and-whites had quickly surrounded her and were watching her interaction with the pup. Franzi held the trembling animal a few centimeters away from her face and examined its unusual eyes. Both the white balls in its two crescents were in frantic motion, zipping back and forth from top to bottom every couple of seconds.
The nepp contingent around Johann and Franzi moved aside as the nepp leader approached. It said something to the other members of its species and then stopped in front of the humans, perhaps a meter away, and watched Franzi cuddle the pup.
“Perhaps you should put it down,” Johann said quietly. “This animal facing us is the leader of the colony.”
Franzi stroked the pup two or three more times, bent down, and placed it gently on the ground. The creature looked momentarily confused by the large group of nepps that had gathered. Then, just before it scampered away into the crowd, it rubbed itself briefly against the bottom of Franzi’s trousers.
Johann, recalling that his last conversation with this particular nepp leader had been inconclusive, greeted the head of the colony with gestures and then, wasting no time, started pointing toward the small grove of trees inside of which was the fenced compound where the ackyong eggs were stored. In response, the nepp leader changed its position so that it was directly between Johann and the fenced compound. Six additional black-and-whites took up positions near the entrance to the grove as well.
Uh-oh, Johann said to himself. This reaction looks similar to the refusal sixteen years ago. Wanting to make it clear that he was requesting processed ackyong slime for only four human beings, Johann used exaggerated motions, pointing first at himself; and then at Franzi, before slowly counting out two more fingers that he held high in the air. He repeated the same motion two more times, believing that he had communicated his message. Just as he finished, the pup Franzi had been holding earlier broke out of the group around them and timidly approached the girl. Bending down immediately with a broad smile on her face, Franzi urged the pup forward until it jumped into her arms and she began to pet it again.
A murmur of what must have been approving voices came from the nepps nearby, but they were silenced quickly by a foreleg sweep from the leader nepp. Franzi, cradling the little pup against her chest and stroking it continuously, walked directly over toward the nepp leader. “There really are only four of us,” she said, repeating what Johann had been saying with his gestures. “We don’t need that much slime.”
Franzi was certainly the youngest female human this nepp leader had ever seen. Perhaps it might have seen Vivien sixteen years previously, when she had helped with the ackyong egg-gathering process, but Vivien had been dressed and acted like Siegfried and Johann, so the nepps had probably not noticed a significant difference. Franzi was clearly different. Already a woman physically, both her shape and her smell differentiated her from Johann and the other human men that the other nepps had met in their lifetimes.
The nepp leader stared at Franzi as the girl continued to talk in a soft, nonthreatening voice, cuddling and stroking the pup she was carrying the entire time. She explained that it would be so much easier if she and her three friends could obtain the ackyong slime directly from the nepps, saving themselves the trouble of harvesting the ackyong eggs and then making the goo on their own. The leader nepp, of course, had no idea what Franzi was saying. However, it was obviously fascinated by the girl, for the white balls in its crescent eyes rolled around continuously and the folds and creases in the rest of its face changed several times, creating a variety of nepp expressions.
For many years Johann, sometimes accompanied by others, had visited the nepp colony once or twice during the weeks preceding double full moon night. This quadrennial visit had always been for the same purpose—to acquire some ackyong slime that would protect the humans from the sperdens during their swim to the offshore island. This historical information was doubtless common knowledge among the intelligent nepps and the current nepp leader almost certainly knew that this new, beautiful human female caressing the pup was adding her voice to the request. Exactly what she was saying was not that important.
While Franzi was talking to the nepps, Johann’s mind drifted into the past. For some reason he was thinking about his second double full moon night on this planet, when the brankers had fortunately not come. That time, in spite of Johann’s objections, Siegfried and Serentha had decided not to train for the swim. Instead, Siegfried had built a small boat for himself and his wife, and had asked Johann if he would try to obtain enough ackyong slime from the nepps to cover the boat’s surface area.
That year ackyong goo was in short supply. It had taken all of Johann’s diplomacy to obtain ample slime for all their bodies. Only a tiny amount was left over. Nevertheless, Siegfried spattered it around the boat and set off into the ocean with Serentha anyway. The sperdens had not been deterred. They overturned the boat, throwing Johann’s son and daughter-in-law into the water.
The sea monsters would have eaten them, Johann remembered, If I hadn’t insisted they douse their bodies before setting out. The boat was a foolish idea anyway and could have set a bad precedent. What would we have done in later years if we had not been able to acquire enough slime to cover a boat and nobody was in shape to make the swim?
Johann’s attention was snapped back to the present when the nepp leader suddenly moved over directly in front of Franzi. She stopped talking while the leader, standing on its back four legs, extended its two forelegs as high as they would reach and touched the bottom of Franzi’s long brown hair. She did not flinch at all, and continued to smile as the nepp played with her hair for a full thirty seconds, stroking it occasionally and even twirling small strands around its jointed fingers. Its curiosity apparently satisfied, the leader dropped back down on all six of its legs and returned to its original location.
Next it made a short speech to the other assembled members of its species. Toward the end of this chatter, four black-and-whites disappeared down the path toward the fenced compound. They returned shortly with a small vat of slime, which they placed on the ground in front of Franzi. The
girl gagged when she first smelled the contents, but she managed to force a smile and graciously thank the nepp leader for its gift.
Johann picked up the small vat by its handles, and started to leave the colony. However, the nepp leader’s chatter and the response from the crowd of animals told him that his action was inappropriate. While Johann stood still, holding the vat, the leader nepp motioned for Franzi to kneel on the ground. After she understood its request, and dropped to her knees, the nepp leader made a few comments to the others. A long queue immediately formed on the colony side of Franzi.
During the next twenty minutes several hundred nepps filed by the girl, who was still holding and caressing her favorite pup. Each of the nepps touched and examined her long, soft hair for several seconds. Johann, astonished by what was occurring, put the slime vat on the ground beside him and watched the amazing procession. After the last nepp filed by, the nepp leader itself returned to Franzi’s side, caressed the full length of her hair one more time, and then with chatters and gestures informed her that Johann and she could leave.
The girl was beaming with delight as she walked down the path leading away from the colony. Johann was holding her hand in one of his and carrying the vat in the other hand.
TWO DAYS BEFORE double full moon night, Johann, Franzi, Rowen, and Siegfried held a full-dress rehearsal. They rubbed themselves with the ackyong goo, plunged into the ocean, swam through the waves into the proximity of a herd of sperdens (who turned and swam away, as predicted), and then returned to the beach in front of their village. After removing the slime from their bodies, the four of them were relaxed and laughing as they moved toward the kitchen to begin the lunch preparation.
Franzi touched Johann on the forearm just before they reached the village. “Uncle Johann,” she said, “may I talk to you? Now, alone?”
Johann looked at the beautiful young girl whose long wet hair was everywhere. “Is anything wrong?” he asked.
