Birdsong

"

[Reboot complete...]

[Traxis Enterprises Powered Armour Suit, Gen4, Specialization: Pilot/Zone Operator]

[Welcome back, Ariane Molden!]

[Warning, battery critical]

"

Ariane made a small wave of her fingers—someone observing her would hardly have noticed the gesture, but the TEPA suit she was wearing detected the motion and dismissed the notification from her helmet's heads-up-display. Sitting back in her chair, she double checked her instruments just to check that the elevator car was descending at the correct speed as it dropped from orbit.

The vast, hostile vacuum of space surrounded all around the enclosed rectangular shell of the elevator car, but below Ariane could see a marble of green and blue—the planet looked much like Earth, even if it shared numerous notable differences from humanity's homeworld.

Slowly but surely the planet was growing closer as the elevator car fell out of synchronous orbit, clutching a tiny strand of carbon nanotubes which were as thin as a human hair but stronger than a thousand tons of steel. Space elevators weren't cheap to deploy, but they were much more efficient than rockets; Traxis Enterprises used them on most of their resource colonies, including the planet which Ariane was now approaching. That tiny strand of carbon—the space elevator's cable—trailed downwards towards the ground far below, where it was tethered to an automated mining station on the planet's surface.

As the elevator car slowly descended, warm sunlight washed over Ariane's TEPA suit. Her helmet automatically tinted the visor to protect her eyes, and the environmental insulation meant she couldn't feel any heat on her skin. "[

Battery critical! Ambient light detected. Deploy solar arrays?]

" asked the suit, throwing up another box of text in front of her face.

Ariane waved away the suggestion. "TEPA, establish contact with headquarters," she said, issuing a command to the rudimentary artificial intelligence which was integrated into her powered armour.

"

[Error. Communication link failed. Check Antenna.]

" was the suit's response. The orbital elevator's top platform had a hyperlink to Traxis Operations Headquarters back on Mars, but for some reason Ariane's TEPA suit couldn't connect. It was almost as if some had deliberately unplugged the suit's communication antenna.

"Lovely." Ariane waved her fingers again, swiping away the message which popped up in her helmet's display. She patted her chest pocket, where she'd put her suit's detached antenna. "TEPA, are you recording?"

"

[As per Traxis Enterprises standard operating protocol, all TEPA suits issued to employees will automatically record external and internal sensor data for training and quality purposes.]

[Error: Forward Camera Failure]

[Error: Rear Camera Failure]

[Error: Internal Memory Failure]

"

"That's great, thanks." Even if it was company policy, Ariane's bosses didn't really care about constantly checking on her every move as long as she did her job, which was to ensure that this automated mining station produced its stipulated output of rare-earth minerals. No one would object that she'd made a few tweaks to her suit, disabling the recording capabilities to give herself some privacy. "Last thing—TEPA, battery status?"

"

[4%]

"

"Yeah, that's low enough." Ariane dismissed the message and relaxed back in her seat.

---

For all its advanced capabilities, the automated mining outpost looked like a small shack with modular grey concrete walls, sitting in a forest clearing. Below the surface was a dense grid of tunnels dug by countless ant-sized mining robots, but above the surface the outpost was unassuming. As the space elevator car came to a stop just above the outpost, Ariane pushed herself to her feet and jumped. She could have climbed down the ladder, but instead she jumped from the elevator's door as soon as it slid open. Even with the planet's slightly reduced gravity (0.9g), falling two stories gave her a considerable amount of speed, but her TEPA suit automatically stiffened its joints to absorb the impact.

Removing her helmet, Ariane shook out her hair and took a breath of fresh air—the atmosphere wasn't exactly Earth standard, but there was more than enough oxygen for a human to breathe comfortably. The ground beneath her armoured boots crunched slightly as she strolled on the local equivalent of grass. All in all, the planet looked very much like Earth—amongst the hundreds of Traxis Enterprises mining colonies located on planets and moons scattered across the Orion--Cygnus Arm, it was a prized assignment to be zone operator here in such a lush, safe world.

A flicker of colour in her peripheral vision made Ariane turn her head. Standing right beside the outpost was a strange, bird-like creature—a pterix. Pterixes stood upright on two legs, but their upper limbs were large wings covered in numerous long feathers to enable flight. Much like their avian counterparts on Earth, their whole body was covered in feathers and they had a short, hooked beak which resembled a bird-of-prey's. In fact, they really did look almost like giant birds, albeit scaled up to human size.

Ariane raised a hand and waved at the avian. "Hi, birdy!" The bird's feathers were a dark brown colour, with only a few black streaks to break up the pattern—it had the colouration of a male pterix. Female pterixes had feathers which were vibrant blue in colour, though both genders were actually far more dazzling in the ultraviolet spectrum, where their eyes could discern hues which human eyes could not. The pterix tilted its head, watching the human with a curious intelligence.

"

[Battery critical! Ambient light detected. Deploy solar arrays?]

" asked Ariane's TEPA suit, once again throwing up a flashing warning message.

"Good idea. TEPA, deploy solar arrays." Ariane raised her arms up and spread them as if she was preparing to hug someone. All down the length of her upper limbs, tiny compartments flicked open and rows of rectangular glass furled outwards—each of the hinged plates was a small solar panel, connected to her suit's battery to recharge it by absorbing the light of the sun. As Ariane held her arms open, the unfurling solar panels looked almost like long, blue-coloured feathers covering her upper body. This fact didn't go unnoticed by the pterix—the avian watched her closely as all the solar panels opened up.

Ariane grinned. Standing up straight with her arms raised, the bluish reflective panels resembled the glossy blue plumage of a female pterix, and her raised arms made her look like she was presenting her wings in a courtship display. "You like the look of that, birdy?" She waved her arms about, and the changing posture made the solar panels spin around and whirl in their sockets as their tried to orientate themselves to face the sun.

The male pterix was completely captivated. His head moved from side-to-side as he tracked Ariane's waving arms, his gaze hypnotized by her motions. For a female pterix, glossy feathers were an attractive sign of physical health and vitality—the glossier the feathers, the more attractive the female was, but the solar panels of Ariane's suit were far more reflective than any natural feather could ever be. It was a supernormal stimulus which overloaded the male's mind and told him that he was looking at the most beautiful bird he could ever possibly see. The rest of the human and her armoured suit was all hard angles and smooth polymer plates, but her arms...her wings! They were beautiful beyond belief. The crest feathers on the top of the pterix's head twitched up and down, not locking up fully in a manner which would openly declare his interest in this courtship display.

Ariane watched with amusement as the bird tried to fight his instincts. "Come on, birdy. Admit you like this." Angling her arms carefully, she made the reflections on her suit's solar panels glint towards the bird's enthralled eyes, and the shiny reflections were more than the pterix could take.

The male shuddered all over, and the crest feathers on his head snapped straight up. "Yawk! Hmm, hmm,

hrmmm

, drrm..." Letting out a squawk which sounded almost surprised, the pterix began singing a complex tune of notes, repeated over and over in a melody. It was a mating call—he'd noticed the female's display, and now he was interesting in showing off his own fitness. Raising his own wings, the male waved them as well to show them off.

Chuckling to herself, Ariane played along. She kept her arms raised, with solar panels glinting in the sun, and she did her best to hum and repeat back the same exact tune which the pterix was singing. "Hmm, hmm,

hrmmm

, drrm, hmm-

hmmm

!" It wasn't a hard tune to sing—the melody was simple but catchy. She slowly lowered herself into a crouch, bending forwards and letting her fists rest on the ground.

Still keeping his own wings unfurled, the male pterix shuffled from side to side and slowly approached. He bobbed his head up and down and let out another excited squawk. "Skrr...? Awk...

Hmm

!" Then when he was close enough, he struck—darting around Ariane, he rubbed his front against her back. His wings flailed about in their air as he tried to balance, then his wings wrapped around her to clutch her close.

Ariane wasn't intimated by this sudden move—pterixes were apex predators, but the large birds were all fluffy feathers and hollow bones. The strength of a human being, especially one in a powered armour suit, far outclassed a creature which had to be light enough to fly. Instead, Ariane giggled as the bird gently clung on to her and eagerly humped at her rear, desperately trying to find his mate's reproductive opening. All the while he kept singing, repeatedly chirping out that cheerful melody which roughly translated to—

sex, sex, sex, you are beautiful, sex, sex, please, please, beautiful, so beautiful.

From this close, the pterix smelled like the scent of approaching rain—musky, earthy, and pleasantly familiar even though this was an alien not from Earth at all. "TEPA, release environmental locks. Confirm order, open suit seals," Ariane said.

"

[Please repeat order to confirm]

[Environmental locks released]

"

Reaching up to her chest, Ariane pulled her suit's release handles. Her chest plate opened outwards, allowing her to pull her arms free one by one as if she was taking off a very stiff jacket. The bird's wings were still wrapped around her, but his feathers felt soft against her unarmoured, exposed skin. Next Ariane glanced downwards, and between her thighs she could see the pterix's phallus.

This was one aspect of anatomy where pterixes differed from most of Earth's birds—male pterixes had penises. Ariane had no idea whether this particular specimen was representative of the rest of his species, but he certainly didn't disappoint. The avian's penis was thinner than a human's would have been, only about as thick as two or three fingers put together, but lengthwise he was comparable. Unlike a human male, there was also no visible glans or foreskin—instead the pterix's penis was a smooth, reddish tube of flesh, leading all the way down to where it vanished behind his brownish feathers.

The male's phallus was tapping against Ariane's groin plate as he repeatedly tried to insert himself, and he left small smears of wet liquid where his tip poked against her armour. The pterix's song was sounding increasingly desperate now, and Ariane didn't have the heart to make him wait any longer. She opened up her TEPA suit's groin and leg segments, and slipped out of the armour completely. Taking off armour while outside was against the standard operating procedure for Traxis Enterprises employees, but she hardly cared.

One last step—Ariane unzipped her single-piece pilot's jumpsuit and pulled it down past her waist in one smooth motion, leaving it wrapped around her knees. Then she adjusted her naked rear and slid downwards, letting her buttocks extend past her now-removed suit, and the pterix's penis came into direct contact with her skin. He prodded her once, twice, then Ariane reached down and helped him align himself, and the pterix's next thrust brought him sinking into the soft warmth he'd been so desperately seeking.

"Yawk... awkk..." The male pterix's courtship song briefly paused as he let out a series of deeply relieved warbles. He began rapidly thrusting, frantically driving himself in and out of the beautiful female he was holding. Ariane kept herself still by holding on to the immobile bulk of her armoured suit, even as the pterix excited started mating with her. His phallus felt far warmer than a human's would have, but his thinner girth meant he didn't hurt her even with his rapid, deeply penetrating motions.

This lasted for all of ten seconds, then the pterix trembled all over and his feathers fluffed up. "Ahk!" A sharp cry escaped his beak—an audible declaration of his mating success. Ariane felt the bird's wings clutching her tighter as his hips bucked upwards. Then his penis exploded with a series of irregular contractions, each twitch making Ariane feel a burst of intense warmth deep inside her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the expression on the pterix's face—he lacked a human's expressive mouth and couldn't smile or frown, but his beak was hanging open in shocked ecstasy. His large eyes were clenched tightly shut. Despite his lack of humanity, the alien bird's blissful expression was easy to read.

For ten, then fifteen, then twenty seconds, neither the human nor the pterix moved, both just holding still against each other. Ariane felt the bird's phallus throbbing inside her, but not with the regularity that a human would have had—instead his semen spurted out in irregular pulses which were triggered whenever either of them shifted, or if she clenched down on his length.

Finally it was like the spell had ended. The male pterix went completely limp; his erect length slipped out of Ariane as he collapsed onto the forest floor, dropping to his back with eyes still closed and wings sprawled open.

Ariane reached down and felt between her legs. A warm, foamy liquid was gradually dripping out from her slit. Reflexively she raised her hand to her nose and took a sniff—the liquid didn't have much of a smell, though she could clearly still detect that approaching-rain scent from the bird himself. "Well, you look like you enjoyed yourself," she muttered.

The pterix's eyes snapped open. After staring up at the sky for a moment, his gaze flickered to the human standing over him. "Ariane...!" he said, her name rumbling in his throat.

"Jahtis," Ariane replied. She reached down and pulled her jumpsuit back on, letting the grey fabric cover up her body once more, though she rolled up her arm sleeves.

"I'll...return the favour, I swear. Just...just give me a moment...to recover," Jahtis muttered. "You know what that does to me, when you do that thing with the solar panels."

"Of course I know—that's why I did. It is also why I had

this

done while I was away. What do you think?" Ariane shook her head, flicking her long hair. She dyed it blue with silvery highlights, even going as far as to ensure the colour precisely matched the ultraviolet spectrum for what a female pterix's feathers would have looked like. Previously she'd always thought that people who dyed their hair were being overly dramatic, but now the action seemed only appropriate.

Jahtis snapped his eyes away, hurriedly gazing back up at the sky. His next few words came out sound melodic and sing-song, reminiscent of that courtship song he'd just been singing. "Drmm... Dron't—don't do that! Too beautiful! You're going to get me all worked up again."

Ariane smiled. "What's the matter, birdy? You ashamed to admit that you're attracted to me?"

"Never! I would shout it to the world, declare that you are my mate now and forever," Jahtis insisted, "But we won't get any work done if we just spend all day mating."

"Would that be so bad?" Ariane sat down next to Jahtis. They were all alone on this planet, with no one else to see or judge them. She had been gone for just eight days, busy with resolving an engineering problem up at the orbital dock where automated interstellar freighters arrived to pick up the minerals they mined. Meanwhile, Jahtis had stayed down on the planet to make sure the ant-like robotic miners kept working as expected.

"Perhaps not. I have missed you very much." Sitting up, Jahtis leaned in close and used his beak to begin gently pruning Ariane's long hair, straightening it out and smoothing it down. "I hope you fixed that micrometeor leak at the orbital dock? This outpost has been so empty with you. Going a week without singing was...miserable."

Ariane leaned into the pterix, feeling his warm feathers against her exposed arms. "You can sing without me, you know."

"What use would that be—for me to sing my song, if you were not there to hear it?" Jahtis replied. "This nest feels empty and quiet without your presence."

Ariane snorted, but with endearment rather than contempt. In the two years they'd been working together at this outpost, she'd come to realize that Jahtis was more than just a noisy bird singing empty praises. His species held a strong natural inclination towards taking mates for life, far more so than humans did—a pterix would find the idea of a casual, non-committed sexual relationship completely alien. How Jahtis displayed that was by showing unending devotion and romanticism to her, sometimes even bordering on obsession. "Not too quiet, I hope. Have you gotten the new eastern sector up and running?" Ariane asked.

Jahtis chirped an affirmative. "Yeeep! The bots have confirmed the scans—it's a big, healthy lump of platinum. " He nodded his head, pleased beyond description that Ariane had returned. They'd started as work partners assigned to maintain the automated mining outpost together, then they'd become close friends, and eventually they'd become even more than that. When Jahtis had first worked up the courage to dance for her and show off his wings, it had been a truly terrifying experience because of his species' dedication to monogamy. For a pterix, that simple courtship dance was as good as a lifelong marriage proposal. Immediately after he'd finished his song, Jahtis had hurriedly rushed away and locked himself in his quarters before Ariane could give a reply. He wasn't embarrassed to admit he found a human—an alien not from his own species—attractive, but he was terrified by the idea he'd just risked making things unbearable awkward with the one person who made his life light up. After an awkward few moments, Ariane had knocked on his door, and they'd had a long, deep talk about things.

"Do you still want me to..." Jahtis flicked out his tongue and licked his beak. "...you? I did promise I would return the favour, but you'll have to take off your jumpsuit for that to work."

Ariane grinned, and she patted the birdy on his head, gently ruffling his crest feathers. "I'll hold you to that promise, but later. First I want to take a long, proper shower—I always feel like zero g showers just don't clean properly." Slowly she stood up, feeling her muscles strain as she got used to moving around in full gravity without the assistance of a powered armour suit.

"Alright, just let me know when you're ready. I love to make you

sing

..." Jahtis hopped up as well. He trotted over to the suit and started accessing the external control panel, manipulating the controls with his feet. Unlike humans with their fingers and hands, pterixes manipulated objects using their dextrous feet. "And...just what have you been doing to this TEPA suit? The OS is throwing exceptions left and right."