"You think that… when you say females going into season… you actually mean they’re fertile and need to… breed?"
I didn't understand why she looked so put out when saying those words. Was she embarrassed? This was a normal, natural way of life. Then again, I had never heard of females being in season that often. How many offspring did they have, anyway? And how long did the gestation last? It couldn’t be long if they were in season every month. They must have… Wait, if that was the case, there should have been more children around. I was missing something.
"What am I missing?"
"Okay, so first, human women don't go intoheatlike an animal. We ovulate, which means our body prepares us for pregnancy, offspring, young ones, or whatever you call it. We don'tneedto mate during that time. When we bleed, it's actually too late. Anyway, ninety-nine percent of the time, we don't get pregnant during a monthly cycle, so then we bleed. For that bleeding, we need hygiene articles, like tampons or pads, to catch the blood."
I made a face. "Tampons?"
She lifted her little finger, "It's like cotton. It goes up into your vagina to catch?—"
I raised both hands and made a loud humming sound. "Uhm, thank you. No, I don't think we have that."
"Fine," she huffed, "how about pads then?" Before I had a chance to ask what those were, she elucidated, holding up part of her shirt, "Just some absorbent material we can put into our underwear would suffice. Something there's a lot of, that we can throw away. I guess we can wash it if we need to. Oh," she looked up, "and underwear. We need a lot of underwear. Please."
I searched the database for something that would suffice and nodded when I put the orders in. "Anything else?"
"Well, there are some kids here. Do you have some toys?" She squinted her eyes at me. “You do have toys, right?"
"Of course, we have toys. I'll get some comms, too, for all of you; that should help pass the time."
"We wouldn't be able to read it." She objected.
"I can fix that." The words were out before an idea occurred to me, and with a sardonic grin, I added, "Or maybe you can."
"You're funny," she smiled widely, actually smiled, and she looked very beautiful doing so. "I'm an engineer, not a computer programmer."
"You're admitting a weakness?" I teased.
Her smile deepened, doing something strange to my heart; it felt as if it was swelling.
"Maybe," she teased right back. Frygg. She was amazing.
ALICE
It turnedout that going into Xyrek’s quarters hadn't been too bad. I had been prepared to be yelled at, but he didn't. It actually had been quite nice and quiet. Something I really envied him for. At this point, I would have given a kidney to be able to have a room to myself, even if only for a few hours.
With the additional refugees Xyrek had picked up, the already sparse space was filled even more. People had taken to sleeping in the hallway, and yes, even in the three spare quarters, but with open doors so we could still use the three bathrooms. Some even camped out on the breakroom floor.
"How much longer until we reach Astrionis?" I waylaid Xyrek a couple of days later, after waiting for him to exit the bridge for hours. I needed to know. I needed to know how much longer I would have to put up with this cramped space. That way, I could estimate if I would go crazy before then or not. I was getting pretty close.
"Alice," he acknowledged me. His dark gaze moved over the thirty or so people camping in the hallway.
"Well?" I pushed.
"Not here," he ordered, pushing through four men and two women to reach his quarters. The door opened, and all heads moved to catch a glimpse inside. He whisked me inside just as the door closed, and it was… heaven!
So peaceful!
I took a deep, calming breath. "Wow!"
He nodded, his face still set in a grim mask. "It's like a market out there offering free stuff."
I couldn't have agreed more, yet—"We were already bursting from the seams before you added more people." I couldn't stop myself from scolding him.
"And what would you have had me do? Watch them being sold?" He demanded. His black eyes landed hard on mine like he was testing me.
"Of course not," I admitted with a sigh. "It's just a lot."
