Birds of Prey - Hetero Edition

"I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything less from aliens," Ayau said as she leaned back into the plush cushions.

"Let me ask you guys a question," Jaeger began, "what's with the names?"

"How do you mean?" Maza replied.

"What about our names?" Ayau asked.

"Why are your names so complicated, and why are they split into three sections?"

"I always found it strange that your people only have one name," Ayau said. "Excluding honorifics like Captain or Lieutenant, and callsigns, of course."

"Well...technically we do have more than one name," he admitted, "but in a professional environment people usually only refer to you by your family name."

"Oh? Then what are your full names?" Maza asked, "is it impolite to ask?"

"No, no, it's fine. We usually have a first name, which is given to us by our parents, and then a surname which is inherited from our family. Some people have a middle name too, usually as a reference to their heritage or a public figure. My first name is Carl, for example, given to me by my parents. Then Jaeger is a family name that I inherited from my father. I don't have a middle name."

"My given name is Richard, and my surname is Baker," Baker added. "My middle name is Harold, after my grandfather."

"Richard Harold Baker," Maza repeated. "Is that much more complicated than Maza'xol'natuih, or Ayau'pal'lea?"

"I suppose not," Jaeger said as he took another sip from his glass. "Do Valbaran names have a similar significance?"

"Ours are a little different. Val'ba'ra'nay names are made up of three sections, all of which combine to form a unified name, much in the same way that a flock comes together to form a whole. It's given by the parents, or rather the flock to which the child's parents belong. There isn't much of a distinction between different members of the flock and who actually sired the child, they all make up a family unit."

"So that means you had like six moms and one dad?" Baker asked, and she nodded.

"My parent flock had seven mothers, actually.

"What do your names mean?" Jaeger continued. She fluttered her feathers in a shade of purple, a little embarrassed perhaps.

"Well...Maza is the first of my names, it's a kind of blooming flower that grows in this region. Naming children after flowers is fairly popular in our culture, the more superstitious will say that it helps them achieve their goals later in life."

"Yeah, it's the same in ours," Jaeger said. "Daisy or Jasmine, for example."

"Then there's Xol, a name that means..." She thought for a moment, staring off into space. "I suppose the best translation is to fly or to soar. It's not so much a literal translation, the word conveys a concept in our language that it probably doesn't in yours, a feeling. When you hear it, you get a sense of...freedom, of flying like a bird. Perhaps it's one of the reasons that I wanted to join the Air Force and become a pilot at such an early age."

"What about the last name?" Baker asked, taking another puff from the hookah.

"That one is Natuih, the last name usually consists of a reference to an emotion or a concept that the parent flock hopes the child will achieve. Mine means happiness, it's rather generic."

"Do Earth'nay names have any special meaning?" Xico asked.

"Not always," Jaeger replied, uncrossing his legs for a moment as they were starting to cramp. "First names rarely have a special meaning, but surnames usually do. Baker, for example, refers to a profession from the ancient world, a person who used to make bread and other baked goods. Smith is a common name, that refers to a person who used to forge metal and make things like tools or weapons. My name is an old German word for hunter, my ancestors came from that region."

"And what about you, Coza?" Baker asked, keeping the conversation going. "What does your name mean?"

"The name Coza refers to an ancient bladed weapon used in warfare," she replied, her tone somber. "My second name, Ma conveys the concept of safety or perhaps fortification. As Maza'xol'natuih already explained, the feeling that it conveys is hard to translate." She brought one of the flexible hoses to her mouth, inhaling before letting the smoke slowly billow from her nostrils, the two humans waiting for her to continue with bated breath. "My last name is Lotl, which means vengeance."

"Ok then..." Baker mumbled, giving Jaeger a sideways glance. "Is there any particular reason that your parents chose such...uh...colorful names for you?"

"I was born on Val'ba'ra, but my parents were among those that made the journey to Ker'gue'la before the invasion. When their city was attacked, they lost two members of their flock. The remaining four were able to evacuate, but...losing a member of one's family in that way inflicts a wound that never really heals."

She lay back in her nest of pillows, letting the tobacco do its work for a moment, Baker clearly regretting asking the question.

"I never knew them," she finally said, "I only knew what my parents told me about them. But I suppose they imagined me avenging them, finding a way to right the wrong somehow. All of my sisters entered the military in some capacity, and it was at the flight academy that I met Maza'xol'natuih and the others. I suppose I thought that space would be the first line of defense if the Bugs should find us here."

Well, that certainly went some way to explaining why Coza was such a hardass compared to the others, but Jaeger could sympathize. Boomer's death was still fresh in his mind, and he knew other people who had died an untimely death at the hands of the Bugs. When you were a soldier in the UNN, it came with the territory. But to lose a family member...parents...he couldn't imagine how that would feel. For a moment, he thanked his stars that his parents were living safely on Earth, deep in the heart of UNN space where nothing could reach them without first going through a dozen other worlds and the combined fleets of the Coalition.

"You'll get your chance," he said, Coza meeting his gaze across the table. "When that hive fleet shows up here, there will be hundreds of thousands of Bugs, and we're going to kill every last one of them. And when that's done, the Coalition will help you retake Kerguela, I'm certain of it. We have no choice, the planet will keep producing fleets and sending them out unless we cut them off at the source. It will require multiple carriers working in concert, and massive Martian battleships like the Kartikeya or the Shiva, they have enough firepower to punch a mile wide hole straight through the planet if they need to. It might take a few years, but you'll see that planet either back in Valbaran hands or turned to radioactive glass."

She nodded, her plumes flashing red as she slammed the rest of her drink and set the empty glass down on the table.

"I would like that, Earth'nay..."

CHAPTER 14: LOOSENING UP

They ordered another round of drinks, Maza and Jaeger trying to steer the conversation in a more lighthearted direction as the night went on. The group discussed everything from exopolitics, to the presence of bathrooms inside human dwellings, their jokes increasing in volume and decreasing in complexity the more alcohol that they consumed. Ayau engaged Baker in a long conversation about the Krell, the pilot telling her everything that he knew on the subject, fascinating her with stories about the giant specimens that were said to exist in remote regions of their homeworld. She let him stroke her feathers again too, Baker laughing with his tiny beverage in hand as he ran his fingers through the downy covering on her tail. Xico, as it turned out, had some experience in the field of engineering. She finally took the opportunity to pick Jaeger's brain about the finer aspects of UNN ship designs, marveling at the footage of battleships that he had on his phone. Even Tacka chimed in now and then, the drink loosening her scaly lips.

To his surprise, he was actually beginning to relax and have some fun, the aliens buying the two humans as many drinks as they required to feel the effects. It reminded him of spending an evening with a group of close friends, then he realized that these were his friends. They had spent enough time together, been through so much, that he felt comfortable describing them as such.

After a while, the table was littered with empty glasses, the bowl of tobacco almost used up as the aliens took their last puffs. Jaeger was pleasantly tipsy, while Baker was as wasted as it was possible to get on such small quantities of drink and herb, already beginning to drift off to sleep on the pile of cushions. The aliens were still very much alert and awake, on the other hand, giving Jaeger the impression that their night had only just begun.

Coza and Maza seemed to discuss something for a minute, there were lots of flashes of colored feathers that Jaeger couldn't follow, Maza glancing in his direction every so often as the two argued. The other aliens chimed in too, but they seemed less invested. Coza pulled her communicator out of her pocket and began to tap at the touch screen. She was quite drunk, and she still seemed surly, her eyes fixed intently on the phone as she typed.

"What's going on?" Jaeger asked, looking between the two aliens. He had never seen them disagree like this before.

"If this really is my last night alive, then I want some company," Coza muttered. "I'm calling Yaotl'mal'atzi."

Jaeger looked to Maza for an explanation, unable to remember the complicated name.

"He's the nurse that you met at the hospital," she explained. "I'm of the opinion that we already have company, but this is what Coza'ma'lotl wants..."

It was interesting to see that disagreements could happen within the tightly-knit flocks, though the alcohol was certainly playing a part. Jaeger had gotten the impression that Coza had meant something quite different by company, or perhaps Maza saw him as...that kind of company?

"He's not coming," Coza said dejectedly, returning the phone to her pocket. "He says he has to work..."

She leaned her head on Maza's shoulder, her friend resting an arm around her. Jaeger wanted to tell her that everything was going to be alright, that they were going to prevail against the Bugs, but there was nothing that he could say to her that he hadn't said already.

"Let's get one more round," Maza said, whistling for the waiter.

***

"Is Coza going to be alright?" Jaeger asked Maza, watching as the alien drowned her sorrows in another glass of bitter liquid. Not wanting to be overheard by her friend perhaps, she got up from her seat on the cushions and walked around the table to his side, sliding in beside him.

"Coza'ma'lotl is a little...emotional right now," she explained. "She's also very drunk. You asked us how we would spend this night if it was our last, and I can't really fault her wanting some male company."

"And...how about you?" Jaeger asked. She shrugged her feathers, not really giving him much of an answer. She was avoiding the question perhaps. "So what would have happened if the male had shown up?" he continued. "Supposing that Coza took him home, would you guys all...together?"

"It's a little more voluntary than that," she explained. "Under normal circumstances, we'd probably all join in, have a go at him, see if we all share the same chemistry. He's pretty cute, nice smooth scales, pretty feathers. He clearly had that outcome in mind, judging by the way that he was acting back at the hospital," she muttered as she finished off the last of her drink.

Jaeger was a little shocked. The aliens were usually prudish when it came to such matters, but perhaps this was the alcohol and the weed talking. In any case, he kind of liked her new directness...

"But these aren't normal circumstances?"

She leaned forward, making sure that Baker was soundly asleep before reaching across the table to pick up Jaeger's near-empty glass, downing what was left. She hissed, her plumes flaring in yellow and purple, then set it back down on the varnished surface.

"The nurse would make an admirable bed warmer, but I kind of had someone else in mind."

Jaeger felt his heart begin to beat faster, suddenly all too aware of the feeling of Maza's soft thigh pressing against him through the insubstantial fabric of her shorts. The fluttering of her feathers brushed his cheek, tickling his skin, and he looked down to see her staring up at him. He blinked, and her expression changed, becoming somehow hungry.

"You always blink like that, do you even know what signals you're sending me?"

"By blinking?" he asked, confused.

"It's the behavior of a submissive male, a receptive male," she explained with a flutter of embarrassment. "You're saying come flirt with me, come seduce me, it signals that you're attracted to me."

"Humans have to blink regularly," he laughed, "I'm not doing it on purpose."

"Yeah, I figured as much, but it's still maddening." She stared at the empty glasses for a few moments, summoning the courage to continue, then shuffled a little closer to him as she began to speak again. He felt her warmth through his uniform, one of her hands resting on his thigh as he sat cross-legged, Maza's tail coiling and fidgeting on the cushions beside her like a restless snake.

"Where you come from, in your Coalition," she began. "Do different people...do different species get together? I remember you always made fun of your friend, you called him Scratcher, you implied that he had slept with a Borealis'nay. Is that right?"

"We...some people...do," he replied stiffly. "I can't say that it's looked down upon at all. People have their preferences, of course, but-"

"Have you ever been a relationship with an alien?" she asked. Straight to the point, he'd have to a be lot drunker than he was right now not to see where this line of questioning was leading.

"No, but I've thought about it. I suppose everyone has once or twice."

"How do they make it work, being so different? How could a Krell'nay and an Earth'nay...fit together?"

"I guess they just do what they can."

"I usually let Coza do the flirting," Maza muttered, "I'm not very good at it myself. I tend to...ramble. But theoretically speaking...if I were to tell you that I'd like to take you home tonight and try to make it work, that I wanted to have you, what would you say? Am I too drunk to think straight, or is there something more than friendship between us?"

"I'd say...let's do what we can."

Her sheaths shot out as straight as a board, and her feathers exploded into a display of pink and yellow, Maza trying in vain to suppress them and struggling to keep her cool. She leaned against him, wrapping both of her arms around his bicep and pressing her face against his shoulder. He was so much larger than she was, it was about as much of an embrace as she could muster.

"I feel like I'm swimming," she chuckled drunkenly, "and it's not the drink. How are we going to...I guess it doesn't matter, we can figure it out as we go. You're so strange and alien, yet some parts of you are so familiar, it's like my brain gets all muddled. You're cute like a male, you have the short snout, the smooth skin...yet you don't act like a male. It's like being attracted to a female, who looks male, but behaves like...oh maybe I'm overthinking it."

"I think if we start asking too many questions, we're going to get confused pretty quickly," Jaeger chuckled. "Just go with your gut, or your heart. Whichever one your culture references."

"Do you like me...in that way?" Maza asked. "I was so afraid that you wouldn't be attracted to me, that I would be too alien for you. You don't seem at all surprised to hear any of this."

"It's not as if this is coming out of nowhere," he replied, "you've been flashing pink feathers at me for days. You must have known that I'd figure it out eventually."

"I guess I underestimated the Earth'nay," she chuckled.

"And yeah, I'm attracted to you."

Were they really going to do this? He didn't even know what parts she had, if they would even be compatible. But ever since that moment in the showers on the Rorke, he had felt a kind of tension building between them, their mutual ignorance of one another's cultures and customs preventing it from coming to a head. Finally, those feelings were out in the open. The barriers had come down, and they had reached an understanding. He didn't care if they were rushing into things, if neither one of them really had any idea how it was going to work, or if they'd even be alive in a week's time. It felt right, he wanted this.

Jaeger realized that her flock were staring at them intently. Xico and Ayau had toothy grins on their faces, while Tacka was looking between them a little apprehensively. Coza was resting her jaw in her hand as she leaned on the table, watching the exchange drunkenly, circling the rim of her empty glass with one of her clawed fingers.

"Took you long enough," she muttered, "I don't know why you waited all this time rather than just..." She hiccuped, seeming to surprise herself for a moment, "...telling him what you wanted. This is why I always have to do the flirting, because you can't take charge when it comes to males."

"We are a flock after all," Maza said as she gazed up at Jaeger, "we must reach consensus if you and I are to take this any further." She turned her eyes to her companions, waiting for them to speak.

"Of course we can take him to bed," Ayau said, "you've had your eye on him practically since we set foot on the Rorke. He's so strange, exotic. It'll be fun."

"Besides," Xico added, her violet eyes fixed intently on his own. "He is a fine specimen, it would be...illuminating to study his alien anatomy more closely. Intimately..."

Coza spoke next, leaning back against the cushions and crossing her arms as she appraised the human. She made a show of looking him up and down, making Jaeger feel like he was being subjected to the cold stare of a father shortly before taking his daughter to the prom.

"He'll do. All that matters to me is that my bed is full tonight."

Finally, Maza looked to Tacka, the meek alien nodding her head after a moment of hesitation.

It seemed like everyone approved, even Coza, a fresh surge of excitement rising in Jaeger's belly along with a twinge of apprehension. What was this going to be like with all five of them joining in? He hadn't been in a relationship for a while, never mind one with an alien, and he had never done anything with more than one partner before. It was pointless to speculate, he would just have to wait and see.

The drinks had all been drunk, and the tobacco had been smoked, it was time to leave. Maza rose from her seat at the table, taking him by the hand and coiling her feather sheath around his wrist possessively, guiding him towards the door.

"Hang on," he said, "I need to help Baker along."

She released him, and he struggled to get Baker out of his seat, his friend just coherent enough to walk with a little help.

"Come on, Baker. Let's get you home, I think you've had enough Valbaran culture for one night."

CHAPTER 15: REACHING CONSENSUS

When they arrived back at the flock's dwelling, Jaeger lay Baker down on the shag carpet in the main dome, putting a cushion beneath his head and leaving him to sleep off his overindulgence. He couldn't blame him too much, they had been celebrating, and Baker had spent months on the Rorke where his consumption of alcohol was strictly moderated. He would be comfortable enough here while Jaeger and the flock occupied the bedroom...

"So...how does this work?" he asked, turning to the flock. They were all bunched up together, craning their long necks to peer at him. Talk about being put in the spotlight...