"We can talk more tomorrow." Lindsay stewed as the Bonat danced about, playing their strange music.
This couldn't go on! It was driving her insane. Secret crushes that lasted for months only to never be requited were for middle school! And she certainly wasn't going to tolerate this uncertainty and cold behavior. If he wanted to reject her, he could do it to her face! If there was ever a moment she could stand being rejected by him, it was now when she could console herself in the victory.
Finally, she stood, resolved. "Talk more tomorrow? We'll talk tonight!"
She stalked over to his tent. "Sirix, I'm coming in," she announced, not waiting for his answer as she strode through the tent flap.
Sirix looked up from his desk and sighed. He put down his pencil. "I know what you want."
"You do?" she asked, slightly incredulous.
He stood, putting a book away. "Yes. But you won't find it here."
"Why not? I've seen the way you look at me."
"Oh, it's not that I don't want you. But we have... incompatible genitalia."
"Incompatible genitalia? What does that even mean?"
"I'm surprised Donil hasn't told you." He sighed. "She probably didn't want to make you unhappy. She really does have a soft spot for you." He turned to face her. "It means our genitals aren't able to fit together. I can explain if you want me to, or Donil can if you'd rather talk to a woman."
"I'm fine, tell me."
He opened up his jacket and lifted his shirt, revealing an almost three inch slit in the flesh where a human's belly button might be. "The Bonat have evolved in a way to ensure the maximum protection of our offspring. I don't quite know how your species does it, but I'm guessing, from what Donil's reported about your anatomy, the male has a part he sticks into that hole between your legs."
"That's a rather elementary way to put it. And that hole between my legs is called a vagina."
"I'll try to keep that in mind. In our species, because the male is the largest and strongest, he carries the baby for the earliest part of its development. The woman has a fleshy post on her belly, called an arola, and when she's ready to... what would be your word for it?"
"Have sex."
"Have sex, she will find a male and will place her arola inside of this area, the goncer," He took his fingers and pulled open the slit, revealing a fleshy tube. "Once it's in it begins to grow and expand to fill it. There needs to be a tight seal for the next part. When the arola has filled the goncer completely, a tube called the tarvola extends into the egg chamber which is located about here." He put his hand on the left side of his chest just above where the rib cage ended.
"The egg chamber?"
"All males have them. It's a pouch where a male's cells float about, there's thousands of them in there. To The Children of The Immortal it's a delicacy, especially when there's a new egg in there. That's why they attack males more often than females."
Lindsay remembered Dolan, lying on the ground with his guts ripped out and half devoured. That must have been what that mutant was going for.
"When a female deposits a cell into a male egg chamber it combines with one of the male's cells and they begin to grow and divide. The rest of the cells then form a hard shell casing around the embryo so it can develop safely. When the shell is finished, after about sixty bils, the egg slides out. Then, ideally, it goes to the mother who has a pouch just beside her hip so it can rest in the hollow formed by the bone and grow there as it slowly consumes its shell from the inside out for nutrients. Eventually, it gets too big for the pouch and that's when the baby can be removed and fed on the birther's milk."
Lindsay was confused. "Birther? Not mother?"
"Well, ideally, again, they're one in the same. But these days the mother is usually a soldier, like Nol, and the birther is someone like Donil, who stays out of danger. In fact, she's one of our best birthers, nine babies, all healthy. Besides, it's not like the eggs need to be hatched right away, once they come out of the male they go into a state of developmental stasis. They can last up to three lanc with no ill effects. These eggs are the next ones to find birthers." He gestured to the golden balls beside his table.
"Those are eggs?"
"What did you think they were?"
"Not eggs." She thought for a moment. "Does it feel good... when you have sex?"
"It feels great. Men have a band of nerves just about an inch into the goncer and whenever it's touched or expanded, well..." He extended a finger in, giving it a stroke. He gasped. "For women it's very stimulating as the arola grows but that's nothing compared to the cell extension. The tarvola is basically made of nerves and when it breaks through to the egg chamber... well, most women call it the most intense experience they've ever had."
Lindsay thought back to all the women she'd seen coming and going from his tent. "So how many eggs do you have in there?" she asked, pointing to the spot where the egg chamber was.
"Just the one. When an egg is developing, the chamber closes itself off until it's finished."
"Then why are all those women always coming and going from your tent? It certainly sounds like you're having sex with them."
"I am. But they don't have a lot of choice, about every twenty-five bil or so their bodies produce the cell and it needs to be deposited. They can ignore it, but it becomes really uncomfortable and even painful. Sometimes it even turns rancid and they get sick and die. In better times, a woman might have a committed partner, but as it is, it's the job of the Bona Serat Corsar to allow them a place to get rid of the cell if they don't have a lover."
"You don't look like you mind it too much," Lindsay said, caustically.
"Why should I? It's pleasurable for both parties and helpful for my people."
A guard stepped into the tent. "Bona Serat Corsar, D'nesa is here to see you."
"You can send her in." The guard left. Sirix turned to Lindsay. "Would you like a demonstration?"
Lindsay couldn't hold back her curiosity, even if she tried to disguise it as mild disgust. "Sure."
D'nesa, a fierce looking soldier from Nol's unit clad in leather bands and brownish cloth with tiger gold eyes sauntered in, her long, white, beaded braids tied together in a high ponytail on the back of her head, clicking together as she moved. She eyed Lindsay suspiciously. Sirix gave her a disarming smile. "D'nesa, do you mind if Lindsay stays to watch? She's never seen it before."
D'nesa glanced at her, then looked back to Sirix with no small amount of pride. "Of course she can stay."
