Gronth Ch. 04 Matt Recovers

"Here it is," Ando huffed when he left the room.

With an anti-gravity harness and help from his caretakers, Matt started physical therapy almost immediately and regained much of the muscle he'd lost while he was unconscious. One afternoon, after some strenuous physical therapy and a good shower in the fresher with Mani, Ando decided that it was time for Matt to get a "proper" bath and a massage.

Matt learned that the Elani considered public bathing to be an important part of their culture. Nearly every family on the non-urbanized planets had an outdoor pool on a member of the family's yard. In urbanized areas or planets, there were public bathhouses available for use. Ando led Matt into the hospital's small room with a deep tub and filled it with hot water, about 38 degrees centigrade. The hot water felt very good on the muscles and joints after Matt's workouts.

In addition to the hot, relaxing baths, Ando's massages were nearly magical. Pressed, prodded and even lightly pounded, Matt barely felt the strain that his muscles had been feeling during his workouts. Matt was happy when Ando announced that he had been assigned as Matt's permanent nurse.

Joya came by every day to visit with Matt and brush up on her English after Ando made sure that Matt was modest again. Joya and Ando's mother collected English speaking videos from Earth which Joya often shared with Matt in order to understand non-standard terms.

It was only through these videos that Matt knew what was going on back on Earth. There was no cry for war with Alien Gronth, and no mention of the Elani. LeJeune must still be in an area of interference. One piece of good news though, was that the ongoing war between the U.Te.P. planets and the E.A.A. had been put on pause. An E.A.A. pilot had refused orders and had saved the families of the U.Te.P. High Command. General Zhao had declared a cease-fire until issues could be resolved peacefully.

Matt was very proud to tell Joya that he was the pilot who had refused to bomb the Interplanetary Youth Games. As usual, Joya told him what a good boy he was, and tried not to sound too condescending. When Matt insisted that he was the one who had brought the peace, Joya hugged and thanked him. She mustn't hurt the male ego after all. Her mother had warned her about how sensitive men were.

More importantly, Matt was learning to speak Elani and he and Joya were getting to know each other better. Their childhood on both planets was totally different, but strangely similar. Both Both experienced their parent's unconditional love for them. Many of Matt's memories revolved around playing outside in the upen country of Texas with his older brother, Benjamin Junior. Joya just wrinkled her nose when Matt explained how his father and grandfather had taught him and Benny to fish.

"Your grandfather taught you how to torture fish before you ate them? Joya asked upon hearing Matt's stories.

"The poor fish gave it's life to help sustain yours, and you made it struggle on the end of a string with a hook in its mouth before you let it drown in air?" Joya asked, horrified.

"I didn't think of it that way at all," Matt said apologetically.

Joya just gave Matt the look of disgust.

"I just enjoyed cooking the fish outside with my father and grandfather, and eating it with them and Benny."

Joya's look didn't change.

"You kill the fish and even the baroos for food," Matt objected after Joya had reacted so negatively to his fishing story.

"We don't torture our animals before we eat them. I don't suppose that you even give your baroos pleasant dreams before you kill them in their sleep."

"First of all, we don't have baroos, we have cattle. Secondly, we can't give them peaceful dreams because cows don't dream."

Joya finally calmed down and forgave Matt for his violent upbringing. Sharing food with several generations of family relatives was something that Joya understood very well. Family was very important to the Elani, and sharing a meal of fish or meat was a real pleasure. Joya loved her parents, grandparents and even great grandparents. They all joined together often for communal dinners and family baths.

Joya no longer said anything against Matt's life choices, she only looked slightly disapprovingly at him when he described the competitive ball games that he and his brother played. Each of Matt's revelations earned him a hug, so Matt went into detail to explain how his young life was riddled with such incidents.

Matt was fascinated to learn that unlike the Terran worlds, there was no poverty in the Elani sphere, and never had been. Elani society was strictly matriarchal. Women ruled the Elani planets. No war, no crime, all activities involved cooperation and not competition. It was an entirely different idea of living from what Matt was accustomed to.

Matt enjoyed hearing about how Joya and her brother were raised under the watchful eyes of her father and her mostly male teachers. As it was, Matt couldn't complain. His mother had stayed home and raised him and his brother, and his father spent more time with the kids than most father's could. Even though that time was dedicated to what Joya considered to be violent competition.

Matt had to question Joya's reaction to his avocation for Scrabble. He and Andrew Tyler had played together on the LeJeune for hours.

"It's all about vocabulary," Matt argued.

"Is there a winner and a loser?"

"Of course there is."

"Then it involves violence," Joya insisted.

Benjamin Seabolt, Matt's father, worked for the E.A.A. agricultural service, helping farmers decide which crops to grow on the various planets that had been established under the first expansion of the Earth Analog planets. Thankfully, Joya approved of Ben Seabolt's occupation. Matt already knew how Joya felt about his job as a warrior.

Joya was delighted that her father was also involved in botany, using sardu in as many different ways as possible. A variety of delicious recipes had been produced by her father and published throughout the Elani food ethosphere. Joya related how she and her brother had spent many hours running naked through the sardu and helping her father collect enough sardu to eat and experiment with.

"Weren't you afraid that you would be stung by an insect or bitten by a snake as you ran willy nilly through the sardu?"

Joya looked at Matthew with a curious expression.

"I am not familiar with the concept of willy nilly. Does it have anything to do with being naked? Ando says that you don't like to be nude. He says that you are modest."

"Willy nilly means to act randomly. You and Ando acted as if you didn't have a care in the world. Weren't you afraid of being bitten by a poisonous insect, or a snake?"

"There are no poisonous plants or animals on any of the Elani planets. Why couldn't Ando and I be willy nilly?"

Matt had no good answer for that question. Nothing to harm a child on Ralajan? He and his brother always had to worry about wasps, ants, bees, snakes, and other assorted mean creatures as they played in Texas. Elani life was very different from life on Earth, or any Terran planet for that matter. Matt was surprised that he was even beginning to think of himself as a Terran.

Matt was happy to realize, from Joya's stories, that every woman she knew worked at some type of job. Most of the living was done outside and public institutions were funded by private gifts from wealthy donors like Joya's grandmother.

Important services, like the tea blend provided by Joya's grandmother earned her favors, which could be traded for other amenities. If nothing else, a family could always gather sardu to make their simple cellulose tunics and to eat. It was nutritious, free, and grew everywhere.

"My mom raised us while dad worked and brought home money. You say that your dad raised you and Ando?"

"Only after we were weaned. Dads can't give birth to children or nurse them. Women still have to do the important tasks. After mother returned to work, dad took care of us though. Men are the best at nurturing. Don't you think? He's definitely the better cook of my parents."

"Have you ever been off planet?"

"Elan for a school trip to see where the High Council meets. I didn't like it. Dad took us to Dorian several times. Dorian is where most of the baroo and bandori are grown. Grandmother says that she is going to roast a bandori when Fala or Venya get mates.

"Are those your cousins?"

"Yeah. They bring a new boy home to meet the family about twice a month. Sometimes they have sex with the men to see if they would make good mates, but mostly it's just sex for the pleasure and the fun."

"What about you? Have you tried to mate for pleasure? Is your grandmother going to roast a bandori when you find a mate?"

Joya batted her eyes at Matt and kissed him softly on the lips, "I don't mate for fun. When I do mate, it will be for love."

Joya laughed. "Grandma says that by the time I select a mate, she will need to have an entire baroo cooked."

Matt decided that he should get off the subject of mating. He had already, in his mind, begun to think of this Elani woman as a suitable girlfriend. Those were dangerous thoughts. His life was so different from hers.

"What do you want to do after you get out of school? Do you want to be a nurse like Ando?"

"No. Nursing is more of a man's job. I would like to work at the University like my mother. I think I'd like to teach about Terrans. I could use you as an example," she laughingly told Matt.

Matt had to wonder out loud about what he might have been on Ralajan had he been born here and not on Earth. Maybe he would've met Joya at the University in the language department. Had he not become a warrior, he thought that he might have been a teacher of languages too.

Joya had to admit that Matt was learning Elani at a remarkable rate and could speak the language fluently enough to get by on Dorian or one of the other planets. Matt would be considered a country bumpkin on Elan now, but was learning Elani with a Ralajani accent and would eventually be accepted anywhere.

Joya's Russian still needed a little work, and her Chinese was passable. Matt had been able to help her with some of the more colorful expressions in those languages. French, Spanish, and Italian had always been easy for Joya, and Matt helped her brush up on those languages too. Currently though, both Ando and Joya wanted to learn English. English was the lingua franca of all of the Terran planets.

As Matt healed and his muscles regained their prior conditioning, a succession of medical researchers paraded through Matt's room to look at the Terran. What Matt didn't know at the time, was that Terran men were supposed to have special sexual prowess when compared to Elani men. Each of the medical researchers, all women in this matriarchal world, carefully examined Matt's body during their rounds. There was no modesty practiced during these examinations.

"I assure you that all of his equipment works properly. That part of his nervous system recovered first," Lela joked as the researchers examined Matt's penis.+

"And you checked that part out personally I assume?" one of the researchers teasingly asked, insinuating that Lela had manually stimulated the patient.

"Not me personally, I had had an assistant perform the procedure. As I suspected, the semen is normal in every way."

When had she gotten the sample of semen? Had Joya been there too? Matt wanted to crawl underneath the table, especially when Lela pulled his sheet off in front of Joya. For her part, Joya just smiled at him understandingly, letting him know that she had performed the procedure and that there was nothing to be ashamed of. It had all been done for medical purposes.

Matt certainly had more muscle mass than normal, even though he'd only just started to do physical therapy. Poking and prodding the numerous visible muscles on Matt's body provided a window onto Matt's numerous workouts with the Space Forces on the trip to Zandor. When they discovered that Matt was not especially developed sexually, they wanted to know more about Matt's sex life.

Lela allowed researchers who were curious about the Terran lifestyle to question Matt about his sexual habits. He tried to answer as many of the personal questions as he could without becoming embarrassed, even though some of the researchers didn't believe him initially.

"How many offspring do you recognize as your own children?" a medical researcher asked Matt.

"I don't have any offspring." Matt answered through Joya.

"How many offspring do you have all together?"

"I told you. I don't have any offspring."

The researchers looked confused. They had been led to believe that Terran men had sex with as many women as they could, as often as they could. Terran men had incredibly powerful libidos, and could not control their biological urges. Lela had told them that this Terran male had no birth control device implanted when she had found him, even though she had added a device routinely after her tests. How could this Terran have no offspring?

How many Terran females have you mated with?" a different researcher asked.

"I haven't mated with any females."

Again, the researchers were confused. There was a brief argument between Joya and the doctors. Finally, Joya was forced to rephrase the question to Matt.

"These doctors want to know how many women you have had any kind of sex with," Joya repeated.

"I haven't had sex or mated with any females," Matt told Joya in English.

"None?" Joya asked.

"I am waiting until I find my perfect mate," Matt explained.

The doctors looked strangely at Matt after Joya translated the answer to the researchers.

Finally, one of the researchers laughed, having found a logical solution to Matt's inconsistent answers. After a brief discussion, the researcher asked her question.

"Are you a homosexual?"

Matt was slightly amused at the question and assured Joya that he was not a homosexual. Joya was happy to hear the answer to that question personally, and gladly answered that Matt was not a homosexual to the researchers. He was just very selective in his choice of mates.

Matt then explained to Joya that many people waited until they found the person they wanted to spend their whole life with before they got married. Once they were married, they mated and had children, in that order. He was one of these kinds of people.

Joya was very happy to hear about Matt's personal life preference. Joya had followed the same tradition and wanted to mate for life, although most Elani did not follow that tradition. When Joya translated Matt's words, the researchers smiled at the answer.

"We are happy to hear that you follow these quaint traditions," Lela told Matt.

Over the course of their relationship, Joya had become very fond of Matt. She thought that Matt was becoming fond of her as well. The conversations about Matt's sexual practices had not gone unnoticed by Joya. She had listened closely to Matt's answers. He, like herself, was looking for one special person.

At lunch, Joya teased Matt about the questions the researchers had asked that morning. Joya pretended to ask him the kinds of questions that she would've asked him earlier. Again, Joya's playful nature was evident, and Matt decided to play along.

"Do all Terran males have big muscular shoulders and arms?" Joya asked, tracing her fingers along Matt's hairy, muscular chest.

"Not many Terrans, but all of the pilots in the Space Force do though." Matt said with pretend seriousness.

Joya rolled her eyes. "You and the Space Force," she said in playful exasperation.

"Next question please,"

"Do all Terran males have as much hair on their bodies as you do?"

Again with the touching. Joya was driving him crazy. Matt had only seen Ando and Mani without clothes on, so he had very little to go by. Compared to them though, Matt felt like a gorilla.

"I suppose that everyone has hair. Some men just have more than others. Among my friends, I'm not considered extremely hairy."

"Do all Terrans have light colored skin and blue eyes?"

In all the time that he'd been on Ralajan, he'd only seen a single light skinned Elani, but even he was darker than Matt. The Elani people all seemed to be of the same race and he had never seen one with blue eyes. Joya had a rich brown skin and green eyes. Her color and complexion made her even more alluring and attractive to Matt.

Max shook his head.

"Terrans come in many different shades of brown. All humans just have more or less melanin in their skin," Matt explained.

"My skin doesn't have much melanin because my ancestors came from a place where they needed as much sunlight as possible. There was a lot of snow and ice where my ancestors originated from. I can't change my skin color. I was born the way I was born."

"The Elani don't have snow and ice. Is that why we don't have light skinned people?"

Matt shrugged. Joya understood that Matt didn't know why some people were the color that they were. Nevertheless, Matt just had melanin like her. He was no different from the Elani in that respect. She liked his color and his hair, and his confidence. She'd even commented to her mother and grandmother that she thought that he even smelled sexy.

"My skin is very light brown with a little pink when I get a sunburn. Some people call that color white, but I'm not."

"No, you are not white," Joya agreed as she stroked the skin on Matt's arms and chest.

"Other people are so brown that they are called black, but they're not."

"Not black but just very dark brown?" Joya asked, trying to imagine that color.

"That's right. Other people have skin that is all of the shades in between,"

"But everyone is really just a shade of brown like me?" Joya asked, happy to be brown and not white or black.

"Yes, brown. The same colors as the Elani." Matt agreed.

"My mother told me that Terrans like to fight. Why do you fight the other Terrans? Is it because they are different colors?"

Matt closed his eyes, imagining all of the faces of the people and cultures he had loved throughout his life. Many of them had brown or black faces. No, it wasn't about color at all. Matt told Joya about how he and Jake the "Snake" Jackson would each willingly give their lives to protect the other. Jake Jackson was a Black man, so no, they weren't fighting people of different colors.

Was it ideology? The current war was a strictly political and economic war between the E.A.A. and U.Te.P. interests. He had no particular beef with people from U.Te.P., the Union of Terran Planets. Matt said that he had originally joined the Space Force because his brother and sister-in-law had been killed in a U.Te.P. raid, leaving their two children to be raised by Matt's parents. Over the years, Matt's squadron had certainly evened that score, but he had no hatred toward any person on those planets.

Joya realized that the idea that all Terrans were inherently violent was all wrong. Terrans fought because they were afraid. They fought in retaliation sometimes because they were afraid that the same terrible things might happen again. It was about wasps and snakes all over again.

"You don't fight because you are inherently violent at all, do you?" Joya realized.

Matt shrugged. "Just wanting to protect my people, I guess,"

"Am I part of your people now?" Joya asked Matt, becoming serious.

"Yes. You are my people," Matt immediately told Joya.

"So is Ando and everyone at the clinic that saved my life. Heck, all of the Elani are my people now I guess."

Joya was silent. This poor tortured, fearful man wanted to protect her and her people. He was certainly capable of doing so, he'd been trained as a warrior and had survived a terrible battle. Her job was just to translate, but she found herself falling for this vulnerable and complicated man, this warrior.