A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 54

"What's this drink?" she asked at one point, indicating the larger cup near to her left hand.

"Water mostly," he said, "though it also has flavoring in it and there is a little alcohol, though not much at all. The cup on the other side holds water. If you wish, I also have a little milk. I know what that is and we drink it as well, but what I have is powdered and must be mixed before drinking it, though it comes from the same animal as the one on your plate."

Jayne tried the water, but found it tasting flat. She nodded and lifted the other cup to her lips, smelling a little cautiously for a moment. "This is beer -- or very close to it," she grinned a little.

"Ah," he smiled, "Now I know what the word means. I'd read of it and assumed that our drink is a little like that, but I hadn't made the connection." He sighed a little, "I was only given a little time to learn the ways of a world of people of many kinds. I see that I have much more to learn. Do you wish for something else?"

She shook her head with a smile, "Don't you dare. This is really nice, though it tastes a lot weaker than what they sell in the city. I do like it though, Bronn. Thank you and this meal is amazing as well."

They sat and ate and talked, the gates finally open between them. In that time, she'd managed to wheedle and whine at him enough to get him to show her what he really looked like and though he sat looking embarrassed himself after changing to that shape, she told him that she liked him this way best of all and she laughed at him over the way that he looked slightly confused.

"Well couldja stand up?" she asked, feeling a little of the drink, though she was aware of it, "I can't see all of you with the table in the way."

He stood up for a moment and she stared at him with a wide smile, "Oh yeah, I definitely like this one the best." He turned around briefly and she giggled at his back end and the slightly shorter and much more slender tail on him then.

She was raising a knife to her lips with a piece of meat on it and she gestured with the utensil for emphasis, "Nice ass, Bronn, "she grinned, "REALLY nice ass you've got there."

He sat down then and leaned on the table toward her, "I do not understand. What is an ass, and why is this shape more appealing to you than the others?"

She thought about it for a minute, "Do you know what a horse is?"

When he nodded, she said, "There are smaller kinds of the same sort of animal. A pony is smaller than a horse, and a little smaller than that is what used to be called an ass. Nowadays, we call them donkeys. The back end of a donkey looks something like a larger version of the back end of a human, so that's what we call our rear ends -- asses.

I like your shapes," she smiled, "They're all appealing to me, Bronn. But then, I'm a little used to being around demons. When you were in the first shape, I thought that it was all over for me. That's why I was so scared. When you make yourself look like a human, well, you're really good-looking then, but this, ... I dunno. This way is just so, ... "

She wanted to say 'sexy', since like this; he really was to her, but she didn't want to say it that way. She was also surprised at how she was having a fair bit of fun here with him, naked as she was here and all. "You're just really nice to look at this way to me. I like them all, but this way is the nicest to me. You can do what you want and change back, I guess, but I think I'm saying that if it was up to me, well then I think that I could just look at you like this all day."

She set her knives down and shrugged, holding up her palms a little helplessly, "I guess that I mean for right now. The truth is that even when you look a little nuts - so tall and strong, I like it now and I've never seen a guy who looks as nice as you do as a human either, though you're a little tall like that. Do whatever you want. Just don't mind me if I drool a little."

He laughed then and suggested that it must be the drink and she nodded, adding that right then she didn't care. After the day that she'd had, it was a nice touch to feel a little relaxed.

They found that they enjoyed each other's company a lot more after that. He now knew all of the things which had happened to Jayne and he told her that he felt that it had all been unfair and unwarranted, the way that her male had been murdered.

"We were together since we were kids," she said, "I just got used to him and he did take care of me, so we just kept going. He could be a bit of an ...

Jayne had wanted to say 'asshole' right then, but she decided not to confuse Bronn any more than he must already be, so she smiled, "Well, he sometimes didn't think too much about what he said or did. I guess that I might have found somebody better for me, but he was there and he took care of me. I think that I'd have had to go a long way from where we lived to find somebody better."

She asked about what he was doing here and why -- specifically. Inside of his explanation, she saw a little of his sadness and asked about it. What she heard shocked her.

"You mean that you can't ever go home?"

He shook his head, "No. It's a class thing. It wasn't planned for by me, and I could not refuse or they would do things to me to make me regret my refusal for as long as they then would keep me alive and in pain. They always get what they want."

She shook her head at how awful it sounded, and then she had a thought. As it settled into her completely, she gasped a little, "Oh, Jesus. Was there somebody that you loved back there? It sounds to me like they wouldn't care much about that, either."

He nodded slowly and looked up with a phrase. She didn't understand it, but he was commanding that the systems access the vocabulary of other languages then. When it responded, he looked down in thought for a moment.

"What it the current time of day on Merren?"

When he had his answer, he looked up again, "Show me the view from the desk camera of the Watcher Jerrthi if she is on duty, please, but if she is active at her post, do not call."

"Our communication raft is up on the surface now and what you wish can be accessed," the voice said, "but there is a delay due to the distance and there may be issues with image quality. You will not have long for this before the rotation of this planet makes the communication fail. It will be better again in ten rotational segments -- almost half of one day."

"I understand," Bronn said slowly, "Please make the attempt for me."

A holographic screen appeared to them at one end of the table and in a few moments, Jayne saw a female of his kind as she worked, looking at her own display before her. She was as alien to Jayne as Bronn was, but she was incredibly beautiful nonetheless.

"The Watcher Jerrthi," Bronn indicated with his hand, "She and I were paired, though we never made it official. Now we are both unhappy and she looks this way whenever I look at her, as though she is ready to weep at any moment."

Jayne stared at the image, as slightly jerky as it was in the movements that the female made and she knew that the image quality was poor. As different as this was to her, Jayne could see that the person there was not large either, looking to be about the same size as she was, though there were other features there which the two of them didn't have in common.

After a moment, Jerrthi looked up at a corner of her huge display and she moved her hand to sweep it over to the center.

"Disconnect, please," he said, but the system replied that it was too late. "Watcher Jerrthi is among the very best of the watchers, "it said, "she is already running down our identification and it is too late. She will know in a moment and what we see is delayed."

Jerrthi stared at the screen, "Bronn?" She issued a series of verbal instructions and Bronn's system said, "She has her lock and knows who we are."

Bronn nodded, "Allow her a visual, then,"

The short conversation that Jayne witnessed then was a little heartbreaking to watch and she heard her name in what was said as Bronn indicated Jayne with his open palm. Jerrthi looked at Jayne for a second and gave her a bit of a sad, but smiling nod. Jayne saw that Jerrthi's breasts were a little smaller than her own when she leaned closer to the screen to try to see a little better, and she also saw that she and Jerrthi looked rather similar in some respects, but at the end of it, the other person peered at her screen for a long moment and said a few more words to Bronn, ending the transmission with a brave smile and then they were out.

"She's so ... "Jayne began but her words failed her.

It caused Bronn to smile a little weakly at Jayne and he nodded, "She said the same of you. She is leaving to go to her home. I am sorry now that I disturbed her. She is distraught, but I managed to give her a brief version of who you are and that you are helping me."

"I wish that I could have told her how sorry I am for what was done to you guys," Jayne said, "Such a beautiful girl, and those dark little horns that she has, like they came off a black goat, just like yours there. I wished right then -- as soon as I saw her face that I could have known her, close up, like in the same room and not I dunno how far away.

He looked a little uncomfortable then for just a moment and then he added, "I told Jerrthi that you are intelligent and she likes this, and asked if you could read. I guessed that you could and she said that she would prepare something for you -- a presentation about what we are, her and I. She thought that if you would be here with me for a time, that you would soon become bored in this small craft and with nothing to do. She hopes to send you something to keep you entertained if you have an interest as she thinks that you might, from the way that you looked at each other. She asked for the name of the speech that you prefer and I told her so that she could use the translational filters."

They were a little quieter for a time, but she found that she had a really big reason to feel thankful, now that she knew Bronn. "I want to thank you for what you did for me tonight," she said, "I'm sure that by now, all of my troubles would be over."

He reached for what looked to be a plate of glass, but as she watched him, she saw that it was a way to enter things into his systems as he began to prepare a report on the day in his journal. "It was what I could do for someone in a bad place," he said, though he didn't smile. "I am happy to have met you through it. What will you do when you are back on land?"

She frowned for a moment, "I don't know. I never saw any of my family again after the night that Monnie grabbed me. I can't imagine that they'd have survived it. The demons are very thorough and they never leave anyone alive -- even if they're full. I don't really have anywhere to go, Bronn, so I can't say."

His long fingers flew over the glass and he spoke to her at the same time, "I would imagine that in the very disorganized culture that I have observed here, a female has few options -- a lot fewer than she'd have where I am from. You would be best to seek for a male somewhere. Failing that, you would have to find some occupation so that you could feed yourself, I would guess."

She watched him for a time and then he looked up at her for a second. Both of them stared at each other and it came out of their mouths together all jumbled up, since they were saying different things.

"You could --"

"-stay here with you?"

They stopped then and tried again after a second.

"I'd have to be careful, to manage --"

"I don't eat much and I'd try to be useful --"

Then they smiled at each other, "We're both all alone here," Jayne smiled, "and I find that I like being with you. I'd like to think I've made a friend."

"I as well," he smiled, "and we have no lives to return to, do we? Please stay, and at least we will not be so lonely. You can teach me how humans are. I tried hard to learn, but there is only so much that one can absorb in so little time and I was not given anywhere near long enough to learn what I needed to know. You are very complex people."

"Oh, it's worse than that, Bronn," she laughed a little, "I'm a girl. Humans don't come any more complex than that."

He grinned and nodded as he plowed through his journal.

It was a little later when he led her back to a place near the shower, since she'd told him that she had to pee again.

He pointed to a fixture roughly similar to one that she'd seen only rarely in her life and none of them worked in the way that she now understood, modern plumbing being a thing of the past now. She'd always thought that they were a curious and very hard seat to sit on.

"You just sit there and go," he smiled, "then you press this and it's gone and you will find clean water over there in that receptacle there to wash your hands. I will leave you to it so that you have privacy."

"Wait, "she said, grabbing his arm, "Where does it go? I mean, we're underwater, aren't we? You can't just throw it out the window like you do back in the city."

He looked at her a little oddly and said, "No. I suppose that I could request that it be pumped out, but that is not what normally happens. It would be processed and purified for re-use."

"For ... re-use?" she asked and he nodded. Jayne understood then why the water had tasted so ... like nothing. Purified meant that everything was removed, no matter where it had come from. She guessed then that even water from the finest-tasting spring would taste flat after that.

"I think I'll stick to the beer," she said, adding that she could guess where the water for it had come from as well, "I'll get used to it, Bronn," she smiled, "I just don't have to be thrilled about it," she said as she began.

She didn't think much of it, since he'd seen her do this under a lot more unpleasant circumstances, but she saw the look on his face and began to apologize. "I'm sorry. I guess I must look a lot more crude than I thought you must already see me. Give me a second, Bronn. I'm very sorry if I've offended you."

"I am not offended," he said as he turned away, "You should not do that in my presence. I should have mentioned it before now. I will wait for you outside."

Jayne was embarrassed again, cursing her lack of manners. She had thought that if anything, what she'd done might show him that she trusted him now. She pressed the control that he'd indicated and her yellow by-product was gone a second later in what looked to be a slightly fascinating process to her. She dashed to wash her hands and almost ran out through the doorway, nearly colliding with him.

"Please explain, Bronn," she said looking up with her eyes pleading, "Don't tell me that I've wrecked this so soon."

He shook his head and tried to smile, "It was not wrong, the fault lies in what I am. The people where I am from are comprised of many sorts of what humans call demons. We use the word as well, though it has none of the dark overtones which it seems to carry for humans. What Jerrthi and I are is getting rare now and I guess that before too long, we will all be gone as a type. We come from caverns and jungles and used to make our homes in the darkest of places for safety. There is water everywhere in those places, rising up hot from the springs, made hot as it is by the heat from the center of the world."

He looked away then, not wanting this to sound any worse than he knew that it likely would to her.

"Come with me," he tried to smile and he led her back into the room. He asked her to sit and then he explained a few of the other features of the device, leaving to stand facing out of the doorway when she'd gasped at how pleasant the stream of warm spray felt to her now.

"Well this is nice," she announced brightly and he finally laughed a little.

"In those dark places, we made our homes so that they could be kept clean very easily and one of the reasons for it is because, ... well," he said a little uncomfortably, "I suppose that a human female would be the same. If she had a male whom she liked and wished to mate with him, then I guess that it goes best if and when she is feeling very safe and comfortable, correct?"

Jayne looked over at his back while she got down and dried her bottom end with a towel, "Oh yeah," she nodded, "if she wants to enjoy it at all and is given the chance for it. Go on, Bronn."

He looked down at his feet then, "I don't know beyond the barest minimum that I read of it, but I think that a human female would exhibit signs to that male of several sorts so that he might recognize what she was hopeful for."

"Sure," she chuckled, "Not screaming in fear and running away would be one and yeah, there are a few others."

"Female Grotto Dwellers in the dark exhibit likely the same signs," he said, "It is astounding to me how very similar our kinds are, Jayne. But when she wishes to show that she is ready, a female such as Jerrthi does something which the male would know that she would not do otherwise.

It does not affect the cleanliness of the place, since a little more water would remove it and there is water all around there, so the female would show that she is completely relaxed by doing the same thing as you seem to do when you are frightened out of your wits."

Jayne stared at his back then, "You mean, she pees herself?"

He nodded, still facing the other way. When she saw it, she knew that she must have looked like an idiot right then, staring into space in shock.

Her comment took Bronn a little by surprise then when she said, "Well yeah, I guess that it would mean that she really was relaxed and feeling safe. Other than today, I'm not anything like that. Usually, I couldn't go to save my life at a time like that, looking at demons and all. Back there, I dunno, I just let go, somehow. You mean, she just gushes because she's relaxed?"

"No," he said quietly as he shook his head, "She does it much more slowly. A male Grotto Dweller interprets this behaviour as what it is; her want of him in the most pleasant way, since he knows that it is something that she would never allow him to see otherwise. She might even have a hole in the floor in her home for it. If she does, she would likely show him as she does this.

That is why I was very uncomfortable when you did that in your fear. I knew that it was not arousal, I am not stupid, but the sight affects my body and makes everything worse. I am sorry, I suppose that I must seem even more primitive to you now. That is how we are seen by the majority of the other kinds of Merren."

He felt her hand in his as she came to him, "Don't worry about it. There are some things that we're different in, that's all, and I think that I kind of like primitive anyhow, not that I ever gave it much thought before now.

Now that I know, I'll try to respect that about you. Let's not wreck a fine evening over something like that."

They were almost back at the table when she nearly floored him with her question, "So that's why you picked me up in that shower thing? You didn't want me to see your stiffy?"

He looked over at her, "What is a --"

She nodded, "You were as hard as a stick. There wasn't any way for me to miss it. You might be a big-assed male demon in some ways, Bronn, but I'm a girl, aren't I?

I've been around a lot of those big bastards that Monnie was bringing and I saw quite a few of what they have, not that I'd ever want one of them. They just fuck and gnaw, often at the same time. There's not a lot of expectation for a human girl beyond the end of her life at their hands. We would kind of like to survive it afterwards, kind of like that relaxed and comfortable thing we were speaking of earlier. Hard to relax if you know you're going to die."

"I have heard it said of that kind that they are all ... well, large," he said a little uncomfortably as he brought them each another beer.