Page 52 of Right Next Door
“The delang come to mind first,” Tsok continued, mostly just speaking his thoughts out loud. “They’re renowned for the veneration of their females. Oh, but the avanava are also known for the tender care they give their mates. What are their secrets?”
“Perhaps we could simply look into what a human male would do and follow that?” Davard suggested haltingly, clearly uncomfortable.
“I’d rather not.” Tsok frowned. “She had a chance to mate a human male, and she did not. She is mated to me. Why give her what she already knows she doesn’t want?”
“By that logic, should you court her in the way of our people?”
Tsok frowned at him. “I don’t think she’ll be open to artificial insemination and perhaps a friendly working relationship as we provide for our youngling.”
Davard chuckled. “I don’t mean our current ways. I meant ouroldways.”
Tsok blinked at him. “The old ways?”
“Certainly. We had our own methods of romance once. A long time ago.”
Tsok sneered distastefully. “Sniffing her and becoming rabid and unreasonable isn’t my idea of romance. And I barely have an idea of that in the first place.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
Tsok started a new search. “Let’s just try to at leastseewhat a human male would do for her.”
“In the research data again?”
“No. We’re going to access the human subnet.”
That was a mistake.
Humans were the most sensual, prolific species in the universe, but at the same time, they were also the species with the lowest natural mating rate. There were plenty of couplings, and more, amongst their people, but very few of those pairings were true, bonded mates. Since humans were equally fertile with and without mating, it didn't really affect them much as far as population was concerned. They were fortunate in that aspect. The majority of species had a low fertility rating with someone who wasn’t their mate, and some that couldn’t breed at all without being mated.
The kreecharma were among those that had a near equal fertility rating – though it was still lower with someone who wasn’t their mate. According to old statistics. All the modern statistics were skewed because the majority of breeding was done artificially, which was lower than both mated and unmated pairings.
Just another thing bringing back their mates could improve.
Also not something he would need to worry about since human females paired with alien males were considered super fertile. He was almost guaranteed to be successful if she allowed him to mount her. So, it wasn’t a concern.
Whatwasa concern was the sheer amount of information rushing at him.
The human subnet, called their internet or world wide web, had a great deal of information, and so much of it was hard to understand. And he didn't even think it was a translation error, as the translator programs that turned the human languages into Standard were very well built. He could read everything without issue.
The problem was that there was so much conflicting information. He thought to figure out what males were saying was the right way to court females – but the advice he got didn't seem quite right. And then he found counter arguments from females saying that those methods and ideas were bad ones and that they were repulsive rather than attractive. So, he tried to find what the females were saying that they wanted, but that was even less helpful. They asked for effort – which he already knew – respect, affection, and devotion. All things easily given. He would even argue that he was already doing all of that to the best of his ability. Even better now that he knew it wasn’t good enough. But none of them actually gave him instructions.
So, then, it was back to the human experimental data. In there, Davard eventually found the foundation of a human date. The standard template of which included the gift of flowers – of course – the sharing of a meal, and/or a small activity. Recommendations were walks in scenic locations, listening to live music together, or any other sort of activity that would take only an afternoon or so to complete. He found a lot of lists recommending ideas. Drinking and painting, driving little bumping cars on a track, exploring a garden or a museum or an art gallery, small sports – i.e. swimming, beating a small ball back and forth at each other, a miniature version of a gamewhich involved hitting a ball with a stick. The list of options seemed to just go on and on and on.
It was slightly overwhelming. When his combot cheeped at him with an urgent incoming message, he was almost grateful. He had been taking a copious amount of notes, but he was getting lost in the sheer amount of information coming at him.
He had gotten other messages since he started his research, of course, but he had been ignoring them to deal with later. However, the urgent notification sound meant that the contents were important and should have his immediate attention. He turned from a date idea he was reading up on – it involved drinking human wine on a railed transportation vehicle through pretty counrtysides – and instead opened the message.
The moment he read it, however, he came up short, surprised. All the thoughts of dates fading from is mind.
“What is it?” Davard asked. He hadn’t missed the urgency of that chime, nor the way Tsok went still.
“The High Imperium is coming.”
“What? Coming where?Here?!”
“Yes,” Tsok said, baffled by his own positive response.
The High Imperium could be considered, in a way, to be the leader of the entire Coalition. They were a member of the vitulli, the first species of the Coalition, and they oversaw and conducted the yearly meetings of all the Coalition members. They were a figure that was just as powerful as they were mysterious.
