Not Hot Fun On The Light Saber

I looked across the room and could see her watching me again...just sitting there licking her lips, and then, when I noticed she would quickly turn away.  I turned to Bill. “See  what I mean? She keeps staring."

“Maybe she likes what she sees,” he responded.  “I have no idea why, but maybe she does.”  He smiled at his own wit.  Only one of us seemed to enjoy it at the moment.  He looked serious for a moment.  “Go talk to her, Carl.  What are you in High School or something?  We’ll be shipping out soon, so you may not see her again anyway.”

“Why go over then?”  I said just to bother him.  He just sat there frowning.  I got up and headed over.

“Wait a minute,” he said.  “Take your card.  They’ll be calling out our assignments soon.”  I reached back onto the table and picked up my black card.  I approached the strange looking woman who was in mid conversation with someone at the time.  Strange in that her skin was blue--indigo.  Her eyes were golden with large black pupils.  I knew she wasn’t from Earth, unless she was a customized clone   I walked over.  The seat in front of her was empty. Was I going to do this?  I started to chicken out, but forced myself to go forward.  

“Is this seat taken?” I asked, putting my hand on the back of the chair.  She looked up at me and smiled.  

“Now it is, sit down.”  I took a seat.  The other woman she was talking to somehow faded into the background and started talking with someone else.  She rested her chin in the palm of her hand.  “So. You are?”

“Carl.  Carl Henderson.”

“Ah.  I am Marsha Braxton.  I came from The Void.”

“Really?  You came so far.”

“Yes, so very far.  We’ve just decided to join the space force a few months ago.  They guilt tripped us into it after bugging us year after year, so here I am.  She extended her hand and I took it.  “I’m a Royal, you know--first born of a royal family.  In my culture it’s customary for the first born to join some form of service.  Even though space is pretty far out there to us, it still counts.  How about you?”

“Humble origins.  Son of a military family, mostly Air Force.  I’m the first one to be part of this.  We just got in the program too.  We didn’t even know such a thing existed until a few years ago.  I was picked because I was supposed to be one of the brightest, I guess.  Never thought of myself that way.”

“Well.  Maybe you are.  Don’t put yourself down.”  She smiled.  “So...”

“So I noticed you watching me,” I said.  “Any reason for that?”

“I’m a bit embarrassed, but on my planet we eat human flesh.   You really looked like you would taste good."

“No.  You can’t be serious!”

“Quite serious.”  I got up and headed back to my table.  “Wait,” she said.  “Don’t be offended.”  I looked back at her over my shoulder and shook my head.  An announcement blasted through the room before I got back to my table.  Our assignments.  First the ship, what class it would be, followed by a list of names.  The names would be given two by two as we would be on the buddy system.  I went back to my seat and waited.

“Light Saber, Outer Patrol Ship,” came through with a list of names.  “Carl Henderson and Marsha Braxton,” were announced together.  How could that be?  She was a woman.  We waited until they announced the last person in that list and we were ordered to leave the larger room and go into side room B.  We all crowded in and took a seat.  The chairs were in a circle.

A tall woman in a Green uniform stood in the center holding a checklist.  “We all here?” She asked. “Please sit with your Twins.”  That was the name for our partners on the buddy system.  We shuffled around until we all found seats next to each other.  I turned and looked at Marsha.  She just shrugged.  I raised my hand.

“Yes,”

“I’m teamed up with a woman.  Is that possible?”  People started laughing.

“She’s not a woman,” She said.  

“Really?”  I looked her over.  She grinned.

“My name is First Officer Sheldrake,'' the woman with the clipboard said.  “I will be your officer on the Light Saber under Captain Winston.  We’ll meet her on board.”  She walked over and paused in front of me.  “We already have questions concerning our main topic.  We are different species from different worlds.  We may seem the same, but that's just on the surface sometimes.  Some of us are male.  Some are female.  Some of us are both.  When one is both one can choose how they want to identify.  So remember that, please.”

I looked at Marsha.  He was a real beauty, though strange and a man eater.  I found that amazing.

“Don’t get overwhelmed, Henderson,” Sheldrake said.  “We are all just bunkmates here.”

“I get it, Maam,” I said.

“Good.  Let’s get on with this presentation and then get aboard the Light Saber.”

***  

We moved into our bunks on the Light Saber.  They were more spacious than I expected.  We had been in basic and had trained on small, rusty, simulator ships on the ground.  This was far from that.  It was one of the great exploratory ships going out to the frontiers.  That’s why there were so many beings from way out beyond the boundaries.  They all seemed to be human, as in two eyes, ears, and so on, but they were of many different shades and with different hidden body parts, or little extras.

Supposedly, Marsha had two sex organs and got to choose whether she was the equivalent of a male in our society, or a female.  She had chosen male and would be sharing a bunk with me.  That seemed weird, but so did a space force.  She was a good looking person, very attractive.   Her looks, and her staring at me, emboldened me to approach her.  I wasn’t the type to approach women I didn’t know. Next thing you know she’s a man and I’m his roommate.  

“Do you want the upper or lower bunk?” I asked. 

“Doesn’t matter to me,” he said.  “I don’t mind being on the bottom.”  He grinned.  “Get it. On the bottom.”

“Yeah, well you shouldn’t be joking about that.  You look too much like a woman to be saying that.  I’ll take the top,”

“Ok.  I’ll take the bottom.  I’m sorry.  I thought you might have a sense of humor.”  He threw his bag on the bottom bunk.  I put  mine on the top and started to feel guilty.

“I’m sorry,”  I said.  “I didn’t mean to sound harsh.  This is all just strange for me.  I sat on his bunk.   “You look kind of like this unreasonably hot woman and here you are, a guy.  One who eats people.”  He sat down beside me.

“I don’t have to eat people.  It’s not like I'm addicted to human flesh, you know.  I’ve heard of some people eating dogs on your planet.  Does that mean they are trying to kidnap your pet and crunch on it?  I eat other things and can do other things with humans.  You just look so tender.  What a waste.”  He started laughing.  “I’m sorry.  I’m just fooling with you.”

“Yeah.  When I look you over I think the same thing,”  I scanned his body.  “What a waste.”

“Yeah." He leaned closer.  "Well I have two sets of organs, so its not a waste.  What you call the male one is on the top.  On the females of our species, the one you call the female is on top.  That's the only difference.  We don’t have male and female designations on my planet so I just chose one on the application because there were only two to choose from."

“I think you gave me a little more information than I needed right there.”

“Oh no.  We’re bunk mates.”  He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close with a lot of force.  She, or he was strong, much stronger than humans.   I looked down at his arms.  They were thin and shapely, but strong.

“I assure you that I am fully functional in many ways” he said with a wink.  I frowned and he laughed. 

“You and I are going to have the time of our lives if you want Carl.  You just wait and see.  On my planet we can go either way.  Maybe I can teach you a little something.  Would you like that?”

“I’m not sure I’m interested.”

“Well if you're not sure that will mean yes, eventually.”  He stood up, laughing.  “You can even call me she if you want to when we're alone."   He began to unpack his uniforms.  Women’s undergarments first.  

"You have to see me in these," he said with a grin.

 Christ!  Who was I rooming with?