A New Direction for Humanity

Yup. Protagonist of this story is still trans.

***

Shae looked in the mirror of the bathroom and frowned. Her hair had been a bit overdue for a cut before she'd ended up on the Mekorial. Now, three days after becoming Xiac's 'assistant', her short pixie with a long side bang was starting to flop into her eyes and get long around her ears. It was driving her absolutely mad. It seemed like a haircut would not really be possible, she was going to have to either grow it long or learn to cut it herself, and neither idea appealed to her.

She was also worried about her teeth, and her nails. Her nails she might be able to trim on her own but she had no idea how to get a toothbrush. Her teeth didn't *feel* dirty yet, but that was probably because she'd still just been eating that gray sludge they'd given her in prison. She'd seen her Ji'rai eating what appeared to be normal food. Or, the alien equivalent of normal food, anyway. She realized of course that she couldn't just safely eat Rei-sa plants and animals, they could easily be poisonous to her.

Grumbling, she got out her tablet and connected into the bathroom's systems, starting a nice warm shower for herself. The techs had been adding more programs into her tablet, it was nice that she could have a shower without Reep having to do it for her. Shae unfastened her collar and set it on... well, it probably wasn't a counter but it was a flat surface. She grabbed the little tube of detergent from the dispenser and stepped under the stream of water. She'd really grown to like the Rei-sa soap, it was bubbly and tingly and she always felt really clean and refreshed when she used it. Even her hair seemed to be smoother and less tangly after she used it.

Finishing up, she placed the tube back in the dispenser and stepped out of the stall. She carefully climbed up a stool that had been put there for her so she could grab the towel out of its compartment. Shae wrapped herself in the towel and giggled contentedly. She fucking loved this towel. Maybe... ah, screw it, I'm gonna ask her. Shae left the bathroom, the towel wrapped around her and trailing on the floor like a royal gown. It made her feel like she was a five year old pretending to be a princess again.

"Reep?" She asked.

"Yes, Shae?" Reep asked, not looking up from her work.

"Is it okay if I keep this with me, for in there?"

"You... want to keep it?"

Shae nodded, "Yes," she said after a short pause, remembering that Reep wouldn't know what nodding meant.

"Just... yes that's fine just ask the Vakita."

Shae grinned excitedly and scampered over to Xiac's door. She knocked five times. The door clicked open and Shae stepped inside. Xiac was at her desk, working.

"Ji'rai," Shae called.

"Speak," Xiac answered, not looking up.

"Ummm... I was wondering if I could... have this. For my bed."

Xiac actually looked up. "You... want to keep it?" Her answer mirrored Reep's both in wording and tone.

"Yes. It's warm and soft. I like it."

"I suppose," Xiac replied disinterestedly, looking back at her work.

"Thank you so much Ji'rai," Shae squealed, dragging her prize over to her bed. She quickly laid the mysteriously dry towel down over her mat, setting her tablet to the side. She had like nine hours until her next tutor, who was labelled "vessel safety" on her schedule.

"Shae," Xiac called to her before she even sat down.

"Yes, Ji'rai?"

"Where is the gift that I gave to you?"

Shae clutched at her neck in a panic. She'd left the collar in the bathroom. "It... it is just outside, I will..." Shae bolted out the door, into the bathroom past a startled Reep, grabbed her collar, buckled it on and rushed back into the Vakita's suite. Xiac was standing there, just inside the door, waiting for her.

"This would have been an embarrassment had anybody else been here," Xiac spoke darkly.

"I am so sorry Ji'rai. I wont forget it again." Shae cast her gaze down to the ground.

"I was speaking about how you ran around my office in a panic. Be dignified in the presence of guests. You were very well-behaved when Skaha was here."

"Oh. Of course Ji'rai, I would never be disruptive if the presence of guests. And I wont lose my collar either." Shae laughed nervously.

"I am glad that you are growing comfortable in my presence Shae, but do not forget whose property you are."

"I understand," Shae blushed deeply. She had noticed that she was becoming very comfortable around Xiac, in a way that she'd never been around any other Rei-sa, not even Manna, whom she'd known for two years. Heck, she was more comfortable around Xiac than she was around most humans.

Unexpectedly, Xiac reached forward and gave her a reassuring pat on the head. She went back to her desk and Shae went back to her mat. She draped her new blanket around herself and picked up her tablet. She'd just gotten back from the same doctor who'd poked and prodded her when she'd first boarded the ship. She'd of course been poked and prodded again, although the doctor seemed more amicable this time, chatting with her and asking her questions about how she was adjusting. He was apparently quite concerned about the superficial cut on her thigh that she'd gotten falling after the ship had changed course. Shae had to assure him that she was fine like three times.

When Shae went to the menu on her tablet, she saw a new program there. It was labelled 'Stories'. Shae clicked on it, and a long list of... words and phrases came up, along with an interface that Shae recognized as a Rei-sa version of a search bar.

"I gave you access to a literature library. Something for you to occupy your time." Xiac called from her desk. Shae looked up, surprised. Did she have the ability to see everything she did on her tablet in real time? That was a dumb thought. Of course she did.

"Thank you Ji'rai, I will read when I can." This was actually pretty exciting, how many people had access to the written works of an entirely separate culture? Well it probably wasn't the whole of their culture, for all she knew she'd been given a bunch of children's books. Shit, she probably wouldn't be able to actually read and understand something that was much above a children's book, would she?

She snuggled into her blanket, picked a story and started reading. It was slow going but she managed to make progress. About ten pages in she realized that one of the words she didnt recognize must be making reference to magical powers of sorts. She giggled and decided that the word just meant magic and kept reading with that in mind.

The door suddenly opened, and a Rei-sa came in, hauling the mattress to Xiac's gravity pad with him.

"And why did that take so long?" Xiac demanded.

"It had an unregistered biological contaminant on it. We had to run it over to get tested before we could clean it." The Rei-sa explained, dragging it over to the frame of the pad.

"Did that contaminant get tested and registered?" Xiac asked.

"I do not know, Vakita."

"When you get back, find out. Make sure it is properly registered and send me the report."

"I... of course Vakita. I will make sure it is done."

Shae blushed bright red and buried her face in her tablet. They were definitely talking about her cum. Whats more, Xiac had made a point to tell the other Rei-sa to 'register' the contaminant. Oh dear...

The Rei-sa attached the mattess to the frame and made a few adjustments before switching it on. Shae watched stealthily as the gravity caught the Rei-sa by surprise and he fell forward a little, almost letting his face hit the mattress before he pulled away. "All done, Vakita," he called.

"You may go," Xiac dismissed him.

"Thank you!" Shae called to him as he started to leave. He looked over at Shae, a little surprised, but made a little gesture with his hand that Shae recognized as being friendly. In all honesty it reminded her of when humans used their hand to pantomime talking on the phone, and she had to suppress a laugh whenever she saw it.

Xiac wasted no time and went over to lie down on her mattress. As she impacted with the pad, it spun under her weight, ending with her being upside down. Shae watched interestedly as Xiac reached out to spin herself back around.

"He changed my settings, Xiac muttered to herself as she reoriented herself to be right side up. "Shae, the second canister from the left on that dispenser, bring it to me." Xiac pointed to a device on the wall that looked like the soap dispenser in the bathroom except it had like eight tubes on it.

Shae walked over it it, the canister was filled with some dark liquid. Gingerly she grasped it and pulled. It came free easily, sealing itself with a hiss. The Rei-sa must use these devices to dispense liquids of all kinds. This doesn't look like the soap at all.

Shae took it over to Xiac, who took it out of her hands, opened the sealed top, and drank the whole tube in one gulp. Xiac sighed contentedly, shutting her eyes and holding the canister out towards Shae.

She took it and put it back in the dispenser on the wall. The machine whirred quietly and filled the tube back up on its own.

"I need to adjust your schedule. You're coming with me soon." Xiac spoke, not looking at her.

"Where are we going, Ji'rai?" Shae asked, sitting back down on her bed.

Xiac responded with a word she didn't understand. "You will understand," she assured her, when Shae didn't respond.

"I will do my best to be well behaved, Ji'rai."

"I know you will. Be respectful but be friendly too. Let people touch you if they want." Xiac still wasn't looking at her so she didn't see Shae's blush.

"Ummm... about the touching, Ji'rai..."

"It will allow them to become more accustomed to you. Besides I cannot be the only one on this ship who thinks that you are cute."

"That's fine, but... I am not sure how comfortable I would be with other Rei-sa touching me... I don't know the word for it" Shae wanted to say intimately, or maybe erotically, but her Rei-sa vocabulary was lacking.

Xiac finally opened her eyes and craned her neck to look at Shae. "Are you referring to the way I touched you the last time I had you up here?"

"Y-Yes, Ji'rai." Shae blushed, remembering the encounter.

"Were you uncomfortable when I did it?"

Shae bit her lip, thinking. Was she uncomfortable then? She'd been embarrassed, and confused, sure. But she was finding it harder and harder to deny that her affection for Xiac wasn't strictly platonic. "I was... a little confused, Ji'rai. I am not sure how I should feel about you, and our... relationship."

"Would you prefer if I did not touch you like that again?"

Shae blushed and buried herself in her blanket. "It... would... probably... be... alright... if you touched me like that again..." she mumbled. Shit. She said it. She'd liked it when her alien overlord had played with her boobs. No denying it anymore.

"Is that an acceptable answer for your Ji'rai, Shae?" Xiac didn't seem to like the mumbling answer she'd given.

"I liked it when you touched me like that, Ji'rai, if you asked to do it again I would say yes." Shae forced it out, blathering it all at once before she could second guess herself.

Xiac laughed softly. "Ask you? You are my property, little human. I do not need to ask for what is mine." Shae winced. She'd fucked up. Why'd she phrase it that way?

"However," Xiac continued. "If it would be preferable for you, Shae, then I will ask anyway. It is a small enough thing, after all."

Shae felt herself... she got emotional. "Ji'rai..." she whispered, running over to give Xiac's legs an awkward hug, half falling into the gravity bed as she did.

"Shae, what are you... why is there fluid coming out of your eyes I thought humans did that when they were sad." Xiac seemed a bit taken aback.

"Sometimes we do it when we're very happy, Ji'rai." Shae answered, continuing to hug Xiac's legs.

"That makes no sense at all. Go lie down Shae. You are adorable but I need to have a nap." Xiac sort of extended one of her legs and gave it a shake, knocking Shae off onto her butt on the floor. Shae giggled and returned to her mat to resume reading. The story she was reading was pretty much total jibberish to her but she was determined to read it anyway.

She read in silence for maybe two hours while Xiac slept. Shae wasn't sure why Xiac was sleeping on on that thing, she had a giant bed on the far side of the room. Either way, she woke, suddenly and with no warning, leapt off the bad and started moving off to the side of the room with the bed.

"Get dressed," Xiac called to her, as she herself began to disrobe.

Shae purposefully looked away, not sure what the protocol was on seeing her Ji'rai naked but not about to find out on accident either. She dug into her box for a top and a pair of 'pants'. She also went and pulled out a pouch she'd been given. She fished out the right dosage of hormones for herself in the form of little yellow and blue squares that the Rei-sa had specifically synthesized for her. They were a little harder to swallow than the disc-shaped pills but it wasn't like she could go to the pharmacy down the road so she didn't complain.

Xiac emerged from her 'bedroom', wearing a uniform, for the first time that Shae had seen. It was a little more elaborate than some others Shae had seen but it looked distinctly similar to the one's she'd seen the soldiers wearing. Were they going to an important function? Suddenly Xiac's words weighed heavily on Shae. Did she have a lot of potential to embarrass her Ji'rai? Xiac was almost certainly putting a lot of trust in her.

"Regarding our earlier conversation," Xiac said, adjusting her hair a bit so it was more out of her face. "If someone does touch you in a way that makes you uncomfortable, do not make a scene, come get me and I shall deal with it. Speak when spoken to, or do this." Xiac made a gesture of covering her right cheek with her palm. "That indicates that you would like to speak. Only do so if you have something useful to add."

"Umm... like this?" Shae mimicked the gesture.

"No. Other side. Never do that. That would be incredibly rude."

"Oh! Uhh, always like this? No matter which way I am facing?" Shae switched hands.

"Yes. The other side is for when you wish someone to stop talking. Do not do that."

"Oh, of course..." Shae thought back a few days. "Did I not see you doing that when Skaha was here?"

"I always want Skaha to stop talking," Xiac chuckled, "but I am a Vakita and you are... not." Xiac headed for the door. "Come along now." She called.

"You're taking Shae with you?" Reep asked, noticing the little human in-tow.

"Watch your tone, Reep. There are many replacements for you back on Rei." Shae actually hadn't noticed much of a tone shift from Reep but her ability to decipher Rei-sa tones and inflections was spotty at best.

"I will dispatch a beacon asking for one," Reep responded fluidly. Shae frowned. The two of them had to be joking, right? Instead of arguing with Reep, Xiac went straight for the tram and Shae hurried in behind her. She would get in shape really fast following Rei-sa around, at the pace their long legs set.

Xiac picked out a destination and the tram sped off, making Shae grab ahold of the rails to correct her momentum.

"I do not know how the plants will affect you. If you feel sick let me know." Xiac said suddenly.

Shae looked up at her quizzically. Plants? The tram started slowing, and Shae grabbed onto the rail again to not fall over. The tram stopped, and the door opened. Shae blinked, dazzled by the light. It was huge, she was clearly still on the ship since she could see space through the massive domed ceiling, but the chamber they'd entered was nothing like the enclosed sci-fi office space that was everywhere else she'd been.

It looked like a jungle, green, orange, and yellow alien vegetation covered the massive dome, spreading out as far as she could see. Shae would have thought the stuff was growing totally wild if there weren't several metallic roads and paths crisscrossing the area, sectioning it off neatly into smaller areas. The entire dome seemed to be built around a large hill, upon which a structure perched, a large one story pavilion that looked like it could have been built by ancient Romans. Ancient... alien Romans, of course, the architecture wasn't anything she recognized but it was made out of something that looked like stone and clearly built for looks and not function.

Shae looked and saw a pair of Rei-sa running in a field not too far off, one chasing the other, weaving in and around the 'trees' or giant bushes or whatever they were. Lords they were fast, it was like watching a pair of cheetahs.

They weren't the only two Rei-sa there of course, the place was very occupied by Rei-sa talking, relaxing, playing, and exercising. Xiac had brought her to a space-park.

"You can run around later if you want. For now, we are going up there," Xiac pointed to the structure at the top of the hill. Shae suppressed a sigh. That was going to be a hike.

As they walked along a path, many Rei-sa stopped to bow or pay respects to Xiac. She didn't slow down or really acknowledge any of them except with small gestures. Shae did her best to smile and return friendly gestures of her own, although most of the Rei-sa either ignored her or didn't notice her.

"Wow, she's adorable," a Rei-sa approached them, looking at Shae and smiling.

"Of course she is. Cutest human on the planet wound up on my ship. Fortune is kind to me." Shae was positive that she wasn't fully translating that right. Maybe the word meant fate or even a deity instead of fortune. She was so caught up in the thought that she forgot to be embarrassed that Xiac had called her the cutest human on the planet, or that the Rei-sa who had approached them was about to pet her. The hand on her head brought her back to reality and she jumped in surprise as the Rei-sa started stroking her hair.

"Haaaa..." she mumbled, the words lost to her.

"Are you alright, Shae?" Xiac asked her cautiously.

"Im fine..." Shae mumbled, enjoying the feeling. Why did being petted feel so nice? She should have made her boyfriends do this.

"Oh, she talks?" The Rei-sa asked, withdrawing their hand.

"I... learned on earth..." Shae replied, looking around and seeing Xiac a decent distance ahead of her. "Oh! It was nice to meet you, bye!" She made a friendly gesture and ran off to catch up with Xiac.

"So that touching is fine?" Xiac asked.

"Oh... yeah I guess. Just... not where my legs connect to my torso." She had no idea how to say "groin" in Rei-sa.

Xiac led her up to the structure which was very open with no walls obstructing the interior from the park, but there was a few soldiers standing around in power armor, forming a perimeter.

"Welcome, Vakita. That thing going in with you too?" A week ago Shae wouldn't have recognized the language as being objectifying but now she did and it made her frown. Most Rei-sa had referred to her as a person but some didn't.

"She is," Xiac answered smoothly. "She is my property, so you ensure her safety as you would anybodys."

"What if she wanders off?" The soldier asked.

"She won't. Will you, Shae?" Xiac looked down at her.

"Of course not, Ji'rai." The matter settled, Xiac moved past the soldier and Shae followed her into the structure.

Soft, ambient music was playing, though Shae couldn't identify the instruments for the life of her. Rei-sa all wearing similar uniforms were milling around, talking, with tables set with what Shae figured must be food scattered all around. It was a party. Xiac had taken her to a social gathering. The thought actually made her blush, wondering just how much she'd been brought here to be shown off.

Shae stayed close to Xiac as she walked through the building, giving out brief acknowledgements to people but not much else.