A Kiss is a Question

"Have you experienced any undue aggressive behavior?"

"No... but frankly I haven't had much chance to enter that arena. Most of that aggression is pretty much being channeled into sexual pursuits.

"I see," said Leneria. "Well, the androgens our atmosphere cause the male body to produce are primarily based toward sexual activity - your circulatory system shows no signs adverse side effects. You also exhibit only a slight increase in muscle tone, but no excessive bulking as one would see with artificial hormones and steroids. I am putting in a note about the elevated levels, however, and would like to examine you again in a week."

Angelo was having problems focusing on what she was saying. Lying there, looking up at her beautiful body and face, he was mesmerized. He tried telling himself it was simply sexual attraction, resulting from the very same hormonal levels she had been describing - but this was a different feeling. Her face was captivating, her words were magical - the tone in her voice made the hair on the back of his neck stand up and feel the good kind of drowsy.

Almost unconsciously, he reached out and took her hand in his. Surprisingly, she unconsciously returned the gesture and held his hand in hers for several moments as she continued examining the readouts. Eventually, she realized what she had been doing and dropped the hand - blushing slightly.

"Leneria, I..."

"I do not wish to copulate with you," she said coldly, turning away.

"Neither do I," said Angelo.

He sat up so he could be more on her level.

"Then what do you want?" asked Leneria, turning back to him.

"This," he said tenderly.

Taking her face in his hands, he bent down to kiss her oh-so-gently. She returned it, and just as he'd felt when she had been there in the greeting party - he was incredibly dizzy, and he had no doubt she felt the same.

"Why did you do that?" inquired Leneria. "I made it clear I do not desire sexual congress with you. You also stated you didn't want that. Why would you kiss me, then?"

"Because that's not what kissing is always about."

"Of course it is," she insisted. "Kissing stimulates countless nerves in the lips and erogenous zones, particularly when the two people kissing have their bodies touching. What other reason would there be to kiss? I have heard reports from other women aboard who have told of you kissing them after the fact. Other fleet liaisons exhibited similar behavior until we trained them otherwise. Why do you do such things?"

"Because... sometimes," stammered Angelo, "sometimes... kissing doesn't have to lead to sex. Sometimes it is an expression of emotion, of love, of like, of whatever."

"I see," said Leneria, quite coldly. "Is that what that kiss was? An expression of love?"

"Maybe it was... but sometimes a kiss can be a question?"

"A question?" asked Leneria, incredulous.

"Yes, you see, with love it is often a question. A question that can't be answered with words."

"Nonsense. A question is formed with words," insisted Leneria. "In response, the answer also comes in words."

"But not always the true answers. Not when it comes to love. You see, I can ask you if you love me and you will say..."

"No, of course. What a ridiculous notion. Aquilans do not love. Not in the fashion you understand."

"And you are an Aquilan?"

"Yes."

"There, you just lied. You are not an Aquilan. You are a human. Yes, yes, yes - your consciousness began as an Aquilan but you have been living as a human, in the same body for several years now."

"What does that matter?"

"It matters because I'm trying to teach you how to be human."

"I have no desire to be human if it involves such disgusting, taboo subjects as love and emotions."

"Taboo!?! What the hell is it with you people? I can do anything with anyone... and I've done a hell of a lot... but when it comes to babies or love, you get offended?"

"Of course we do!" shouted Leneria.

"Look, you're angry!" shouted Angelo right back. "Good for you! That's an emotion!"

"I AM NOT!" screamed Leneria.

She caught herself.

"I am not," she said, more calmly.

"Yes, you are," insisted Angelo. "But, to get back to my original point. I could ask you if you loved me, and you might speak the words 'yes' or 'no', but the answer you gave me in a kiss could be quite different."

"That's ridiculous," she muttered.

"Is it? Let's just see about that."

He pulled her into another kiss. She fought him at first, then surrendered to his embrace, her body softening against his. After well over a minute, she pulled back - gasping. However, her face hardened again and she turned from him.

"I need you to leave now, Commander Telegin."

"Sure, I'll leave - but now I definitely know the answer."

"Leave!"

"I'm going," said Angelo, "but who can I talk to about this emotional stuff?"

"No one! Now go!"

***

"Movie Night," cried out Menaea with the closest thing to excitement Angelo had seen since coming aboard.

"Movies, awesome!" cried Angelo. "Hey Menaea, do you want to be my date?"

"Your date?" she asked, perplexed. "What is a date?"

"A date is a custom back on earth where someone asks someone they are attracted to accompany them to an event like a dance, or a dinner, or a movie."

"Why don't they just go by themselves?"

"It's part of a courting ritual," explained Angelo.

"Courting? As in legal matters?"

Angelo rolled his eyes.

"No, a mating ritual."

"Like foreplay?" asked the buxom scarlet-skinned woman.

"Sure, like foreplay," said Angelo with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Very well - but the movies are already a form of foreplay in a way. Someone came up with the idea that we all sit next to each other and not touch each other, no matter how tempted we are, for the entire length of the movie. I will confess that some of us often slip. What is involved in and earth date?"

"Pretty much the same thing, I guess -- especially in the earlier years," said Angelo with a laugh. "You just choose someone specific to go with and sit next to. So, I choose you."

"Good," said Menaea, "if the evening goes well, it will give us the chance to complete what we started yesterday before Leneria interrupted."

The room was soon set up with chairs, enough for looked to be the entire crew compliment. Angelo and Menaea found seats and waited patiently.

"What do you think they'll show?" asked Angelo.

"It's hard telling," said Menaea, "but it is always something good."

"Hey Marcus," said Angelo to the strapping young man who was walking in with a tiny young woman wrapped around his waist, suspended on his great cock.

"Angelo!" called Marcus, lifting off the young woman and setting her down with no apology. "I've been meaning to speak to you."

"Fire away," said Angelo, patting the seat next to him.

Marcus sat down and greeted Angelo with a proper handshake.

"I studied Leneria's report of your examination. The part that fascinated me the most was what you said about kissing. You said a kiss is a question. I don't understand. How can one ask a question with no words?"

"Hmm, there's a lot of unspoken questions - at least in ordinary society. I'm sure you have a shoulder shrug, I've seen it. 'What's for dinner?' I ask you. You don't know, but instead of saying 'I don't know' you just..."

To illustrate, Angelo shrugged his shoulders, holding his hands up.

"We do do that, don't we?" exclaimed Marcus. "I don't know if we always did, or if it's something we learned from the liaisons. How fascinating. So, if a kiss is a question - is it merely asking "do you want to have sex?"

"No," explained Angelo. "It's a question of 'do you like me?' or... well, of other things that seem to be pretty off-limits around here."

"Amazing," mused Marcus. "Neirna, your predecessor - she showed a great affinity toward me. I was her primary sexual companion for the last few weeks of her stay with us. She kissed me a great deal: Before sex; after sex; sometimes she would simply kiss me as we passed in the hallway for no apparent reason at all. Do you think she was asking me questions?"

"I'm sure of it," said Angelo quietly.

"I fear my answers were not to her satisfaction," mused Marcus.

"I'm sure of that too," said Angelo.

Just then, the lights dimmed and the couples yet to be seated proceeded to their seats.

Angelo looked about at the gathered crowd. Going to the movies was one of the fascinating traditions that had survived over the centuries. Time and again, it had been predicted that people would cease attending videos en masse, but the group gathering always made a resurgence. Like many people, he wasn't even sure why they were called movies - but he loved them all the same. He was looking very forward to what they were going to show.

His jaw dropped, however, when the screen lit up and the first words to show was a disclaimer that all performers in the video were of legal age and had given consent to be in explicit scenes.

Cheesy music began, and Angelo groaned as the screen showed the title "Assteroid Whores - The Sequel - starring Andromeda Mist"

"I admire Andromeda," whispered Menaea, "she's so flexible."

Angelo tried watching for a little while but then excused himself, though Menaea seemed too entranced to even notice his departure.

He was soon wandering the mostly empty corridors of the ship, an odd experience in two ways. One, the ship was always bustling with life. Two, that bustling life was always 'bustling' in many other ways - quite often sexual.

Angelo found it refreshing. It gave him a chance to truly appreciate the elegant engineering of the Aquilans. They had borrowed from every style going from ancient art deco to aqueous modern, forging the Alshain into a ship with sleek and sensuous lines throughout.

He found himself passing the med center and was surprised to see Leneria working inside. He stepped in and she looked up with a mixture of annoyance and feigned patience.

"Greetings, Commander Telegin. I would have thought you would be at the movies."

"I tried, but since I'm pretty much surrounded by the real thing - it wasn't all that entertaining."

"What do you mean the real thing?" inquired Leneria.

"I mean, if I wanted to see a bunch of people having sex, I would have just gone to the nearest 'lounge'."

"But it isn't the same at all," argued Leneria, "the people in the movies are professionals. The camera, the lighting - it changes the experience entirely."

"Okay, whatever you say. But do you ever watch real movies?"

"By real, I suppose you mean the pornographic variety where people expose themselves," said Leneria with an air of disgust.

"Expose themselves?" asked Angelo, perplexed. "How exactly do they expose themselves?"

"Emotionally. They are naked, exposed to their very core. It is shameful."

"That's your definition of exposed?"

Angelo was finally starting to make a tiny bit of sense of the Aquilans.

"Commander, you no doubt have some understanding of our race. We find our bodies to be joyful things which bring us great pleasure. It is in our very core to do so. However, it continues to perplex us that humans are so frank and open with their emotions."

"Why?" asked Angelo, desperately. "Why are you so guarded with your emotions?"

"Again, I will warn you that is private. It is the most private thing you could ask."

Angelo persisted.

"But that's the point, isn't it? That's what I'm supposed to find out. The inhabitants of the Alshain are supposed to come to an understanding about humanity and vice-versa."

"To an extent," replied Leneria through a tight-lipped scowl. "But there are boundaries."

"Fine!" said Angelo.

"Fine!" said Leneria in a tone she did not wish to take.

Angelo stormed back to his cabin.

It had been a little over two weeks. He had yet to examine the vidlogs of his predecessors. He was tempted to start with Neirna, but decided to go all the way back to the beginning.

The very first liaison had been one Captain Macy Quextil, a blue-skinned woman no-doubt descended from the Xfelsians. She was a striking, powerful looking woman. The camera turned on her and she had tousled hair and was holding a towel to her chest. She was giggling.

"Well now," she said with a smile. "The instructions were very specific regarding these records. They are only for the liaisons and we are to be as frank as we wish."

Inadvertently, she let the towel fall.

"Oops," she said with a sigh. "Well, if you're watching this, seeing a bit of my skin won't mean all that much, will it? In a word, this ship - is - heaven. I have had more men here in a few weeks than in all my years combined, even on my spring break to the pleasure planets. They are wonderful lovers, too - each of them.

"I know they've spiked the air, but I really don't care. As for their emotions - well, I don't know what to say about that. I think it's just that they've never had someone to show them. I have my eyes on Paulus, who I suspect may be particularly ready to tip over into emotions once he has the chance. But for now, I'm just having a hell of a good time - I hope you do, too."

The next entry was marked three weeks later. Macy had a colder look in her eyes - an exhausted, forlorn expression.

"I don't know what to do," she said in a tired tone. "I keep thinking I see a glimmer, but then it goes away. There's some barrier between them and emotions. I try talking to them about love and caring - and it's like I said I was into incest to a religious zealot. They just shut down and turn away. These men are so beautiful, they're all so beautiful, but without anything underneath they might as well be statues."

Her final entry was one of tears, and anger.

"I can't wait," she said, "I can't wait to get back to the real world - to real men. I don't know what I'm going to do other than grab the first man I see - any man, and take him to bed. I want to make love, I don't want to fuck. I've been fucking my brains out for three months now and I've never felt so empty. Just a smile, just a laugh while a man is inside me - that's all I want now."

Angelo started skipping through ten vidlogs and he was struck by the nearly identical pattern in each of them. Week two, euphoria. Week four - frustration. Week eight - anger. Week ten - depression. Final week, defeated resignation.

Here he was, week two, but the euphoria had already begun to flag. There were several women who lingered in his mind; Menaea, with her lush body and beautiful skin; A'nish with her dark beauty; and above all Leneria - with whom he had never shared the slightest true physical intimacy.

He pondered his situation for a while and then emerged from the liaison cabin on a mission.

He first went to the medical quarters, but Leneria wasn't there. Next, he began a search of the ship. She was nowhere to be found, yet he kept searching - turning down propositions right and left.

At last, he was able to find someone who had seen Leneria in the Center. Donning goggles, it was there that he found her. She was looking up in to the gaseous expanse, her hands and body pressed against the glass as though communing with the inhabitants.

"Can you speak with them?" he asked softly.

"Oh, hello Commander Angelo," she said. "No, we cannot communicate with them, per se. We can detect their concerns and sense a general tone - but it is only through a special interface in a separate room that we can have a coherent conversation."

"I see," said Angelo, though it wasn't quite clear.

"I can tell some of their thoughts, however, by inference. Do you see that female there?"

She pointed to large tubule to their left.

"Yes."

"She is our most proficient engineer," said Leneria. "She was a lead engineer for the Alshain and is near completion of designs for the Alshain II, a ship which will make this one seem primitive by comparison. Ah, here comes a male to help her complete her designs?"

They watched as a non-hollow cylinder drifted toward the female in question and began to slide into her opening.

Subconsciously, Angelo now found himself behind Leneria. His skin was just brushing hers, his painfully rigid member was nestled prominently against her shapely ass.

"Is he an engineer, too?" asked Angelo.

Leneria turned to look at him, pushing instinctively back against his firmness.

"The male," continued Angelo (though he was having difficulty concentrating), "is he also an engineer? So he can help?"

"No," said Leneria softly.

It seemed she was also having difficulty concentrating.

"The uh... the way we... the way they work," she said in a near whisper - her hand reached behind her to gently stroke Angelo. That contact seemed to provide some sort of anchor to help her concentrate again. "The way Aquilans think is through the energy provided by sexual contact. They think all of the time, of course, but for difficult tasks such as what she is doing - she needs that added energy."

"Like computers?" suggested Angelo. "A computer needs extra power for the extra cycles."

"In a way."

Leneria sighed as Angelo's shaft found its way into her. Entering her from behind, she simply braced herself against the glass and the two of them kept watching the union in the tank - as they formed a union of their own.

"Too bad humans don't work that way," said Angelo. "If we could think and fuck, I'd have won the Galactic Nobel in the last couple of weeks."

"We have noticed that about this form," said Leneria with a gasp and a thrust backward against his cock. "We find it a bit frustrating that our cognitive reasoning is impaired by sexual congress. However, we have endeavored to overcome this shortcoming in our own unions."

"Yes," grunted Angelo with thrust. "I was amazed at the way Bellen was able to review some schematics while she was giving me oral pleasure."

"Indeed," agreed Leneria. "She has always been gifted in splitting her focus. Oh look, the engineer is doubtless making progress on her designs."

The pair they were watching was now in full union. The male was sliding through to one end of the female, fully emerging, then diving back through her inner cavity. With each slide a lightning-storm of electrical and chemical activity lit up the Center and the female was glowing brighter.

Half-consciously, Angelo began timing his thrusts to match those of the male. He was even removing himself and plunging back into Leneria. The aura infusing the Center was palpable and it was clear (if what Leneria said was true) that the female had climaxed and doubtless reached some sort of clear breakthrough in her ship designs.

"Oh Commander," cried Leneria. "I desire you, so."

She pulled off of him and turned to face him. She leapt into his arms and wrapped herself around him. He lifted her onto a nearby railing against a wall and began pumping with even more energy.

His body was reveling in the feeling. As had happened with their very first kiss, there was that indescribable 'more' between the two of them. Each place their bodies touched, each plunge into her moist pussy, his body practically sang in celebration. What was more, she seemed to be returning the feeling - to be experiencing it herself. More than any other Aquilan woman, she was moaning and panting at their union. Others had made some noises - but ones akin to what someone might make at a difficult sporting match in the heat of a difficult tennis volley or the like. Leneria was moaning from pleasure and he thought he detected the slightest hint of a smile on her face.

"Fill me up, Commander Angelo," she panted, "fill me up with your beautiful cock and your delicious semen. I've been desiring it for so long. Oh. Ohhhh!"