That was the most male thing I had ever heard in my entire life.
“Have you … have you spent time with one of them on this mission?”
I couldn’t believe I felt jealously of Kol possible having sex with a sexbot, something that wasn’t even alive.
“No,” Kol answered. “My thoughts have only been of you; I have not shared sex with another female since before I left Ealra.”
I nodded, relieved with his answer.
“Are your sexbots Maji-like?” I quizzed. “I’ve seen some broken sexbots on Earth, and they looked so lifelike that at first, I thought they were dead bodies.”
“Our sexborgs look and feel just like a real Maji female. They offer pleasant company, too. They were designed to trick a male’s senses into feeling as though a real female is in his presence; it helps calm a space traveller, or a male in general, when a female is close.”
I raised my brow. “Your species sounds obsessed with females.”
“Very much so.” Kol nodded, not in the least bit ashamed. “Females are everything, and we males know that. They give the gift of life, they’re precious.”
I was doubtful.
“Does every male feel that way?”
“Yes,” Kol replied.
“Even the gay ones?” At Kol’s puzzled expression, I said, “Males who are sexually attracted to other males.”
He choked on air. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
I didn’t know if he was disgusted or genuinely shocked.
“Meaning it doesn’t exist in your species, or you’re just too pig-headed to believe it does?”
“It doesn’t exist,” Kol said firmly. “Maji are definitely not like humans, Nova. We are driven by instinct; the need to mate and breed with a female drives us. Males can’t produce offspring together, and our bodies are only in tune with females, so no sexual arousal could ever occur between males.”
“Oh,” I said, wincing. “Sorry, I thought you were being homophobic.”
“Being what?”
“Never mind,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Being gay on Earth is punishable by death. My species is backwards in more ways than one. Some males were attracted to males, some females attracted to females, some were attracted to both. People can’t help who they love.”
“Where would a male even put his cock in another male?” Kol then asked, looking more confused than I had ever seen him. “They both have cocks so where—”
“I regret ever bringing this up,” I said, speaking over him.
“Where do your human males put—”
“Kol,” I cut him off, my face burning. “Forget it.”
He shook his head. “I’m curious.”
“The mouth.” I covered my face and blurted, “And the arsehole.”
Kol sounded like he would pass out. “That is a waste canal!”
“Seriously,” I pleaded. “Change the fucking subject!”
Kol suddenly erupted with laughter. “I can’t wait to tell Mikoh of this.”
I shook my head. “Let’s get back to talking about your brothers. Why didn’t they check my galaxy on their mission since it is close by?”
If trillions of miles are considered close.
“When they set off on their mission, we didn’t know your species existed,” Kol explained as he leaned against a column in the room and folded his arms across his broad chest. “We Maji don’t interact with many species unless on a mission. At a docking station on Vada, Vina’s home world a long way away from here, my brothers searched up different species on the species directory they had, and an image of what a human looked like was incorrect. The creature they saw had no head, just a body and many arms and legs. It was not compatible with Maji, so my brothers blacklisted your galaxy as Earth is the only inhabited planet in not only your star system, but in the entirety of the Milky Way which is huge. They continued their search which led them further into the cosmos.”
“Okay,” I began. “That’s understandable, but how is it that you came across humans? And how did you get Sera to join you?”
I had wondered about the augmented woman since my encounter with her, and I couldn’t figure out why she was with the Maji. I didn’t understand the benefit for her. She wasn’t defenceless on Earth. If anything, as augmented, she’d be pretty powerful. She was lethal, smart, and didn’t have to do the things I had to do to survive.
“My father led a mission to an unnamed planet ten of your Earth years ago. It was home to another species, but it held some humans that had been taken from Earth’s trading posts over the years. My father went to the planet to trade for some samples of a new fuel the local scientists had created. It was dangerous, but fuel is vital to our space travel, and we’re always looking for reserves in case our current source dries up, so my father made that mission a priority. My father met Sera, and he quickly realised that humans were very similar to Maji. He asked her what species she was, and they spoke a little. Sera was a slave to a docking master, so my father bought her for a small fee and offered her safety and freedom on Ealra. He wanted to help her and give her a chance at life, but he also wanted to have our healers examine her to see if we were compatible.”
I processed that, and though Kol had answered a big question for me, it only left me wanting to know more.
“It has been ten years since your father’s trade deal,” I said, blinking. “Why did it take ten years for you to come to Earth to make an offer to Earth’s government for us women? Surely the scan on Sera showed our compatibility?”
“The scans the healers took were inconclusive because Sera had a sickness in her early life that destroyed her reproductive system. But we had high hopes we would be compatible based on how physically similar we are. We have also tried with your government,” Kol stressed, his lip curling in annoyance. “We tried and failed three times within the first two years of our discovery of your species, but your leaders wanted an exchange we would not agree to.”
I felt a little sick at the thought of what my people would want from the Maji.
“What did they want?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself. “Tell me.”
“They wanted to come to Ealra with us, but we refused. Maji are not the only species to inhabit Ealra, and we did not trust your leaders with our planet, considering they greatly aided in destroying so much of yours.”
The sorry image of the Earth I saw from the viewing pane on the bridge flashed in my mind.
“It was the right decision,” I said with a firm nod. “Our human leaders are filled with greed, and they wouldn’t have settled for living in harmony. Eventually, they’d have tried to take over Ealra as the dominant species, and Maji would have been slaughtered in the process.”
Kol nodded solemnly. “That was our fear, so we declined their offer, and in return, they declined us any chance of having human females.”
“Vindictive bastards.”
“It was why my brothers remained on their mission to find compatible females because we did not know if we could ever come to an agreement with your leaders.”
“I understand.”