Aliena 02 Aliena Too by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497662834
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part 3

Alien Threat

Aliena left the human before the starfish class; he knew what to do, and the students would help him where it was needed. They had been severely cautioned at the outset never to disparage his effort in any way, and never to use the term “moron.” They had to appreciate him for what he was, a transplanted brain who was learning their ways. He did have the valuable emotion that they had to study, and they might even discover other ways in which he could be useful.

The reality was that the starfish had needed his excellent human body as a host, and made a deal to obtain it amicably. They needed the wife, Lida, to cooperate, and she would not do so if she believed her former husband was unhappy in his new situation. So they had to keep him happy, and make sure that Lida knew it. That chore had fallen primarily to Aliena herself, as the robots really were not equipped to do it. But she had enlisted Explora to take up his attention in certain respects, because of her affinity for those respects. He had treated Explora in a manner she had not expected, enabling her not only to achieve maturity, but also to win the race and gain the right to breed at such time as she chose. She was now the third full adult starfish on the ship, a position of prestige and power. Aware of this, Explora was coming to like Quincy, apart from the pleasure of simulated breeding. He had done her a significant favor.

And, actually, Aliena herself was finding him increasingly appealing. This was partly because of her human experience, learning emotion, which she needed to maintain in order to relate effectively to the human realm. Associating with Quincy was a constant reminder of the qualities of humanness. But it was also because he did have individual values that were to be respected, such as integrity and empathy. And because he evidently was finding her, Aliena, increasingly appealing. She liked being considered appealing; that appreciation was a human trait she had acquired. This might be considered foolish on her part, yet it did facilitate her ability to better understand humans. And finally, there had turned out to be some pure pleasure in the simulated breeding with him. He liked it so well that it reminded her of her somewhat illicit initial pleasure of discovery, back on the home world a century ago when she was young and irresponsible.

So she did like Quincy, and saw no reason to discourage this emotion on her part. It enabled her to be more human than was otherwise feasible. Of course she did not let it interfere with her duties to the ship and her species and mission.

Meanwhile Gloaming was doing well on Earth, and so was Star. The little duet they had sung had gone over very well. It was still necessary to guard them from potential assassins, but the overall acceptance was growing. The continuing association of the two cultures seemed likely.

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