Learning about the Theria

The rest of the week’s travel passed uneventfully. Despite her earlier indicated desire for a date, Meli appeared to not have finished planning for one - instead contenting herself with the social contact offered by giving Dustin lessons in the Velca language. That was something else about non-humans that amazed earthlings - the fact that where Earth had hundreds of tongues, almost every alien species had only a single language they spoke. As far as more intimate contact was concerned - after their impassioned lovemaking in the aftermath of Dustin nearly dying on the moon, the pair had opted for more casual intimacy. Dustin had shared Meli’s bunk more than once, although the pair generally preferred the slightly larger bunk in the captain’s quarters - but regardless of location had mostly contented themselves with mutually enjoyable orgasms and being together rather than the intensity of a marathon sex session.

For her part, Rye was barely seen by the other two; the engineer had virtually locked herself into engineering, only poking her head out for dinner and taking all other meals while she worked - to the point that Dustin was starting to get a little worried. “We should probably see about getting her out of there more often to eat at least” he mused to Meli one evening as the pair reclined on his bunk. Neither had felt particularly like leaping into sex that night, instead preferring the casual closeness while they talked over the day. The Velca shrugged as she replied. “She’s a Rabyth working on a project, they all get like that. Burrowed in, they call it - at least if you want a literal translation. As long as she’s still collecting meals and eating them which Sola says she is there’s no point interrupting her. She’ll come out when we get to our next stop in the morning, she knows her pet project is second to her duties here.” Dustin had nodded at that - Meli had already informed both him and Rye via ship comms that there would be a briefing about their next mission in the morning over breakfast as they would be jumping into space occupied by the Theria just after lunch.

Thus, on the morning of the journey’s final day before their next task arrived the three gathered somewhat sleepily in Dustin’s ready room. Rye had arrived there first and glanced up knowingly when Dustin walked in. Doing his best to not act weird around the Rabyth he nodded to her as he chose his food and sat down before Meli followed him out into the room with what to Dustin seemed to be an exaggerated stretch and yawn. Lowering her arms, she winked at him before retrieving her breakfast from the automat and sinking into her own chair. “Eat first” Rye and Dustin both said over their bowls as the Velca opened her mouth to speak, Dustin adding “briefing can wait until we have all eaten and can pay full attention, chief science officer.”

Meli flashed him a grin at the use of her official title, but acquiesced and settled into her own food rather than talking. At last, when all three of them had finished their meal Dustin pushed his chair back from the table slightly and turned to Meli once more. “Alright. What’s the situation with the Theria then?” In reply, Meli tapped the console in front of her to bring up a holo projection just like her previous briefing. “The system we are jumping into is not the Theria home world, but a colony. They are a species of plant-based life with an intricate dynastic system ingrained in their culture. This colony’s leader has apparently negotiated a marriage between his eldest offspring and a high-ranking family on another colony that is also on our path. Due to the relative status of the leaders they cannot send said individual to be wed via their normal vessels as they are not high enough class. On the other hand, cultural issues mean that they cannot charter a vessel from their own species due to concerns around marital purity - a trait I note they share with some of your human culture groups captain. And as colony governors they are not wealthy enough to buy a new ship themselves.”

Dustin nodded slowly at that, before pre-empting Meli’s next words. “So, despite the high L’anl rating of humans I’m guessing we’re acceptable for the purity check as they’re plant folk, and an ambassadorial ship, even one of a new species like mine is high enough prestige to work?” In response Meli smiled. “Yes, although I should note the Theria have an exceptionally low L’anl constant and are also one of the few species our tests indicate operate on standard L’anl values with humans. Many plant-derived species would have less of an issue; I do not think you realize just how… potent? Capable? Humanity is.” At that, Rye leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. “What do you mean, standard L’anl values Meli’a? What’s the deal with the humans?” Meli sighed and turned her attention to the Rabyth woman. “You know the standard L’anl compatibility index I presume?” Rye nodded, so Meli continued “Well, humans screw with it. Their value is stupidly high to begin with, but more importantly our testing indicated that in the vast majority of species it overwrites rather than multiplies the value.”

The Rabyth woman’s eyes went very wide, one hand dipping to her stomach involuntarily. “Overwrite… overwrites? What the actual fuck? What kind of… no, forget that.” She kicked her chair back from the table, her powerful legs sending her sliding into the wall with a crash. Scrambling up, she stepped over to the automat and punched in a code seemingly without looking. A moment later, she pulled a rather familiar looking medical spray from it. Flipping her hair to one side she pressed the spray to her neck just above the fur line and worked the trigger. “Nerd, if there are any other surprises about our captain you’d better tell me right fucking now OK?” Dustin hadn’t seen the Rabyth that angry before as Meli shook her head and the woman stomped back over, slamming the used spray down on the table and retrieving her chair before slumping into it.

“Sorry about that captain. We’re both fucking lucky you’re a decent human though. Wonder if that bastard Flass told the others and opted not to tell me? Hmpf, ‘course he probably did. Dickhead. Right, lemmie try and explain this in a way that makes sense. Rabyth are… you know how we overpopulated our homeworld a whole bunch? Yea? Ok. Well, part of the solution to that was a fertility adjustment treatment that reduced the number of pups we have in a litter down into a similar range to that of humans or Velca, one to three. Sure, we have them a whole bunch more often, but it’s better than the ten to fifteen we had previously according to the history texts. Well, that treatment relies on it being Rabyth or other species with a similar L’anl value that we’re mating with. Don’t ask me why or how, I’m an engineer not a biosculptor. But if the humans overwrite that… Damn it, I could have ended up unable to walk for months after my interview if you’d been anyone else captain. Fuck.” Dustin and Meli sat open mouthed at that outburst, before Meli stood up and bowed deeply to the Rabyth. “My sincere apologies Rye. My focus was on human studies, I didn’t know that about the Rabyth. My apologies to you too captain” she added, turning to Dustin “I should have conducted more research before we arrived but I was too focused on… other things.”

Dustin shook his head. “Nothing happened. As far as I’m concerned it’s fine if Rye’s fine - if not, we’ll find a way to make it up to you.” The Rabyth woman gave the other two a thin smile at that before shaking her head. “Sorry Meli’a, that freaked me out. I’m alright, or at least I will be. I’m really glad I found that out now and didn’t decide to…” and here she paused, glanced sideways at Dustin so quickly he wasn’t sure he’d imagined it and then blushed as she continued “…I’m just glad I’ve been down in engineering and Dustin’s human culture kept me safe.” Meli eyed the Rabyth for a moment, then her eyes opened wide. “Oh” she said, before turning to Dustin. “Captain, could we have the room please? I believe I need to discuss some things with our chief engineer. In private.” Then, when he opened his mouth the speak she added “Now, Dustin!”