(Alien Opportunities excerpt)
He finished his duties and came into the comfortable lounge where some of the household were to be found. One of Urilt's wives, Braidt, had overseen his work so far, and she was present, engaged in reading some more of Earth's literature. He had talked a little with her on each of the last few days, particularly about Earth literature, which she said obsessed her very much at the moment. He found her very dignified, her brain was sharp and enlightened. She expressed feelings in a way that her husband Urilt never had, nor some of the other aliens. His conversations with her had been a large reason for his pleasure in working here at the house, although all of the household had been friendly to him. "What are you reading today?" he asked, politely.
"Today I read a fantasy." She named the author and showed him the book. The name was obscure to him but he saw the colourful cover of a noble warrior, climbing an exotic mountain. Behind was a beautiful scantily clothed dark haired maiden. In the distance they were pursued by some evil looking warriors. He knew the kind of literature. He enjoyed it himself when he had the time.
"I don't know this author, but I enjoy this kind of book. It is different from the ones you have been reading over the last few days. Have you finished all the other books?" he asked.
"Some of them are finished. Others I will finish when I want to. You know I like to investigate different books."
They had talked before about some of the books she had read in the past. She read very widely judging by the varied subjects and genres she chose to read. She read factual and fictional books. He could not help but be impressed by her knowledge, or her taste. He had found himself admiring this female alien's mind, and wishing that she were human and more attractive to him.
She was not unnattractive by any means. He could imagine that, as alien females went, she was strong sleek, healthy and well built. Her skin was smooth, and thick, stretched tautly over her face, arms and legs. There was no slack or flabbiness. She seemed to him youthful and vigorous, powerful like Urilt, a fine specimen of her species. A major defect in alien attractiveness, as Chris saw it, was their skin colour – grey. It was a tinge rather than a complete colour, much as the black skinned are not really black, and the yellow skinned are not really yellow. There was always pale whiteness, but rather than pink or brown there was grey. Some aliens were darker skinned, and some were very pale. Braidt was somewhere in the middle of the range. Braidt's face, like all of the aliens' , seemed half human to Chris. As such it had a human beauty to it, a long face, a long slender nose which dominated her face more than it would any human; forehead higher than any human's; eyes piercing purple on soft violet, and some aliens had other colours' greens and yellows; instead of circular the pupils were a diamond shape. The ears were large, and some stuck out as well; Braidt's in particular, and she had no hair to hide them with; even then they would have stuck out through the hair. All of the aliens were hairless, which was one of the things which to Chris made them appear most alien. As to the rest of their bodies Chris could only guess from the shape which their clothes would reveal, except for the arms and lower legs which they kept bared when the temperatures were warm; they were strong muscled, smooth skinned, and not dissimilar to human limbs except for their palor. Surely they were related to humans, he thought, but there were many differences in ability, character and psychology, as well as the physical differences.
"I was wondering what you want me to do next," Chris offered when there was a brief pause in conversation.
"You are in service. I will instruct you when I want something. For now you are serving me very well. Thankyou." Chris found her words quite incongruous. He was not at all clear what his duties entailed here, apart from the ones he had just finished performing. Neither Urilt or Braidt had given him a full explanation. Even in the office he often waited to be instructed and Urilt and other managers were often unconcerned when human employees were sitting with nothing to do. These people seemed to be without urgency, although all the humans obeyed quickly when instructions were given. No one wanted to anger these powerful creatures who everyone felt wary of. Evidently here she was quite happy to talk with him about human literature. He must take his lead from her. It seemed that here he was a general servant. He knew not what the extent of his duties might be. They seemed to have little distinction between business duties and the personal. In a human company business and the personal were sharply delineated. He supposed as this was a 'family' company that they were not so concerned by the distinction.
"There is something you can do for me now," she looked at him carefully with her purple eyes. He had the feeling that he was being analysed in some way, not for the first time among the aliens. She had done this to him when he first came to the house, three days before, as had other members of the household, Urilt had done it when he was interviewed for the job, and occasionally other aliens in the office. He felt that a judgement was being made about him. Those staring eyes made him uncomfortable. "Follow me." He turned to follow her into a room along the corridor. He felt regret for having said anything about work, because now it seemed she had some real work for him. Just moments before they had been having such an interesting conversation. The room they entered was relatively bare except for some soft benches, such as you might find in a gymnasium, floor mats which he had already ascertained were used by the aliens for sleeping on, a couple of mirrors, and some Earth furniture – a settee and some comfortable chairs. The room had been made comfortable with rich red and soft violet patterned wallpaper, and there was a book case on the wall. He surmised this could be Braidt's own private room, because of the books, but maybe not.
She turned to him. "I want us to relax together. I do not want to shock you, or to hurt you. You don't relax much do you?"
Chris began to suspect where this might be leading, but her intention was not yet clear to him. What exactly did she mean by 'relax'. He felt nervous and fearful, but he told himself to trust her, she was showing some sensitivity to his feelings. "No, I suppose not. What do you mean by relax?"