The Novel Business

Chapter 3: Sibling Business

Chapter 3: Sibling Business

Kili and I arrived at the shore home in only a few minutes. The flowing plastic building caused her to stare at it for a few minutes. If she wasn’t a robot, I would of sworn she was going to puke as she suddenly looked away. I laughed in my head, holding my nose to prevent myself from offending her. She finally recovered, looking at me as my hand slipped away from my face. She sighed as she walked over to the building itself, walking in quickly. Well, would of if there had not been a door in her way. I came over, gently prodding the external film of the door. The plastics Of the door slid away, the design of the door being one of the few things Valeen had made themselves for above the surface living. I know while we used our home tongue under the waves, we borrowed from other species languages for above the waves.

It worked out fine in the long run, but it just shows how we Valeen leave anything between the surface space to everyone else. Except the Orochi, since they were aquatic like us. The only useful words still used from our language is “Sur” and “Sur’a” or for the uninitiated, pronouns for hermaphrodites. The rest of the words today were grinded up from the ten major races we knew. Well, Eight, since two of them didn’t use standard language and instead cheated it by using telepathy.

Oh, where was I. Yes, serious business. I brought the Korshin inside my house, herself waving in and out of the doorless rooms. I lived alone and most Valeen didn’t care for privacy between partners. I did but I, again, lived alone. She slipped through my house quietly, finding my computer. She touched the small tower of the computer as I walked in. Despite armor and rough construction, the Korshin girl still managed to show a bit of delicacy with the computer. I know I personally had kicked the thing once, though webbed feet was a little painful in that regard. “So this is it?” She asked as it slowly flicked on the holo-display. I nodded to her as I watched her at her work.

“So, what you thinking?” I asked, mulling as I watched the distorted screen come up. She slid out the small projector for the keyboard. She keyed in a few commands as she switched it over to programming mode.

“Glad you have the advanced set,” She says to me, giving me a nodding smile before typing away. She didn’t seem to care to put up the cushioned I had, then again, she had metal fingers. It did worry me a tad she might damage my desk. However I wasn’t probably going to be using my personal computer much until she had also upgraded the security a lot. She typed away, seeming to forget my presence for a moment. “Wow, never seen this thing before. Someone must not like you,” She mentioned, waving me off as she worked to counter-hack it. I shrugged and left the room. I walk into the kitchen and pull out a small fish snack. Terran’s called it sushi, I just called it food. I threw the fish into my mouth, letting my sharp teeth shredding it to pieces.

I shook out my neck as I turned my head to my door. I opened the iris again with a light touch and walked outside the door. The sea crashed at my doorstep as my mind churned into thoughts and musings. I stretched a little as I looked at my clothes. They were unfit for the sea, so I took them off and hung them on the front of my house before sprinting at the edge of the water. There was few things I enjoyed more than the feeling of water against my body. It was one of the few experiences that triggered my senses like none other. All Valeen are at home in the water, but I spent so much time above the surface that I was not desensitized to the greatness of the sea.

My leap was long and true. I fell into the water with a large splash, sliding against the sand on the bottom of the sea. The soft silt rubbed against the bottom of my body, refreshing me and stimulating me. Before long I drew free of it though, swimming hard through the undertow that pulled me further and further out to sea. My mind was free as water rushed through my gills, my webbed hands and feet propelling me deeper into the ocean.

My thoughts were like the waves, coming to me in pulses. I had built up many contacts over my days and I knew where to find all of them again as I relaxed and swam in the waves. Fishes darted by and away as I looked outwards. We had three people now: An inventor, a security agent, and a marketer. We needed more programmers for starters, the personality of the creation at least was indebted some to its creators design. We also needed a robot mechanic, it was obvious that Viktor had no beginning of the understanding of that. Not everyone would want a smart ass cube.

I dove deeper into the waves, a music of its own wailing through my gills as the sonar of the creatures around me pierced my ears. The hum of life entranced me as I devised how to sell it. I didn’t think about it like that until later of course, but I had a business now and I could do a lot more things at home. I didn’t want to go out every day to lose the magical feeling of this. I shook my head and propelled onward as I refocused on the agenda at hand. I knew a man who was a good machinist, an Ixlayian. Wasn’t really a man though, more of a blob in a suit. A laugh made it out of my mouth at this though. I drew to a stillness as I let the undercurrents move me slowly, never losing control, just relaxing now.

I looked beside me to see one of my own kind meandering along. Wave speak was uttered from sur, “Dess, Dess…” She knew my name, making me give her more than a glance. Her body was as naked as mine, but clearly aroused from the enlarged organs. Nothing caught my attention until I noticed her pigment patterns of yellow, green, and natural blue. I closed my eyes and shook my head before swimming quickly away. I heard her give chase to me. We swam swiftly, my eyes keen on things as she gave chase. Finally I chose to fall back towards her.

We hit each other in a hug as I looked at my sibling with a smile. “Yuli, you should tell me you are in the area,” I told her, giving sur a knowing smirk. Sur gave me a shrug before pulling back and floating a little.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Yuli responded, smirking back, “And anyways, you’re the official one. I’m not going into all that stuffy stuff.” We were both fairly different overall, we had the same parents but they switched roles for each of us. In simpler terms, sur mother was my father. Other races got confused by that concept, but we just swam beside each other as she looked at me softly.

“So what got you turned on?” I finally said, noting Yuli’s slight arousal. She just laughs and does a loop in the water as I wait for the moment.

Sur takes a few moments to respond, “Been hiding and squirming in the sand. Even you come out of that…”

“Yeah, I know. You know…”

“Don’t need to tell me. Sheesh… you may consider me promiscuous but I’m not that bad. I mean… I’ve been with the same partner for the last six months. I stopped, well, doing all that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Heh… you’ve changed some Yuli. But anything bothering you? You don’t just leave things out at water city to come visit me for no reason.”

“I know, I know. Well… I’ve been with my friend for some time as you know now. I just… really wanted to see if you had found anyone else for yourself to settle down with. Got me thinking about it sib. We aren’t going to be young for all that much longer. Modern tech isn’t that good. Well… and… I also wanted to tell you sur and me are going to, well, breed.”

“Congratulations. Glad to see my sibling settling down. And I assume everything’s good in the family.”

“Yup, mom and dad are good and the business is going well. How about you, finally started up that cool business of your own?”

“Yes.”

“Awesome. Can I get details?”

“That would be telling. You’ll learn more about it in time.”

“Oh… actually, I was also hoping that you could help me out a little. I… well, one of my friends, not my close one, needs a job and was thinking of coming to the surface.”

“Does sur have programming skills or something?”

“Sur’s an… um, an expert doctor and knows details on all the races anatomy. If that helps…”

I thought on it some, not wanting to turn down my sibling. But what did we need someone like that for? Then I realized something about these robots, they would be sentient and some of them might even desire to make connections in an intimate manner. I knew the standard machinist knew nothing of a body and couldn’t design a robot worth crap that would make someone feel at home. Maybe mix the skills of the machinist with someone who knew the bodies in both an analytical and personal way and know how to make them well.

“Does the friend know them beyond the holo-books?”

“Oh, trust me, yes. Heh… you should listen to sur babble sometimes. Ah… but sur’s a good person when sur’s on topic.”

“Then we’ll need sur. Send the friend over. I’ll meet sur at my house,” I tell Yuli as sur smiles to me before stopping near me and hugging me. I hug sur back, holding sur closely. We drift like that for a few moments, enjoying the few parts of Valeen culture I did enjoy; sibling closeness. I knew something like this in other races would cause cries of insect; but us? Just normal and it was nice having someone this close when you spend all day with nearly a million kilometers of mental distance from a person half a meter away

“I love you Yuli,” I told sur. Yuli nods a little before kissing my cheek.

“I love you Dess,” Yuli says as we finally break away. My sibling looks at me for a few before I kiss sur back on the cheek. Sur smiles before nodding a little to me. “I do need to get back though,” Yuli says before starting to swim off. I wave as my sibling leaves before heading back towards the shore myself. I knew it was quite fortunate to meet sur and was glad to not have to deal with company when with Yuli. The trip back did not have the kind of experience I had there, it was simply lost after being with a person. However I was glad for the time and I knew more of who I needed to see now.

I came up on shore with the Korshin looking out towards the sun as I walked across the beach. She looked curiously at me as shrugged to her. I really didn’t care what she saw, those Korshin’s felt sexual desires as weak. She shrugged and spoke, “It’s fixed. I’ll be heading back if you don’t have anything else for today.” I nod to her and she stands up, heading out. I shrugged a little as I went inside, letting myself drip off my wetness. It was my house after all, nobody else was looking. If someone was, I’d mess them up rather quickly. I walked through the corridors before I noticed my phone was beeping. I clicked on the audio as I listened to the voice on the other side.

“This is Ivanioch, you said you would meet me today at your place of business. Dessera, I find your non-existence a symbolic statement that you don’t like me,” The phone said, the Termillion’s tone less than happy. He… I mean sur, still was as silky smooth as ever in his voice though. Sur I mean. Termillion’s were supposedly hermaphrodites like us, but damn did they look like human males to us.

“Um, hey. No, didn’t mean anything like that. I just quit earlier today,” I told sur, just being truthful. He was silent for a few moments before chuckling a little.

“Oh, my. What an awkward moment I have created. Quite unlike my style. Perhaps we can talk over a new business deal over dinner. I’m sure you are a clever enough person to know when you need a job,” he… sur? f*** it, I’m calling sur a him. He said this to me, myself chuckling a little.

“Who said I need a job? I’m a smart Valeen, I know how to save,” I tell him smirking. He laughs a little over the line as I sit down on the table, my body starting to feel dry enough to touch things. He seems to hum for the next few moments. I go towards the hang up button.

I stop when his speech begins again, “Then perhaps just a friendly dinner.” I mulled this over before shrugging. If Viktor was never going to ask me out, I figured I might as well talk to this guy. He was smart, not funny, but he had other talents. I had a thing for talents, since that’s my main thing too. I knew I wasn’t funny in the least myself, way too official. I brought a finger to my chin. I would talk with him, but I would mostly keep it official. I wasn’t really in the mood to have anyone with me at the moment anyways.

“Sure, what you thinking?” I ask him, throwing the dinner plans to them. He sighed back to me.

“I was thinking about Tommorow at the ten and eight hour.”

“Hmm, let me… Now, that sounds a little early.”

“Best if we start early if we are going to be up late.”

“I doubt it, Sur.”

“True enough.”

“Now. I will see about what place, sur.”

“I’m thinking Iopo’s Fish Hub.”

“Such a bland name… but he is a Sectian.”

“True, but it makes him focused on his work.”

“Never been there before, so I would not know. But if you trust it…”

“I do, I do.”

“Then we’ll meet there. Or shall we go together?”

“Separate, after all, everyone uses pods.”

“That’s very much true. Hmm… I wish I could do something to make them a bit more interesting looking though.”

“Same, but they don’t dye like our skin.”

“Definitely right.”

“Well, talk to you then,” I say before clicking off my phone. I yawned a little before heading to the stairs, walking up to my bedroom. I laid down on a soft water bed, relaxing out there for the night. I stared at the ceiling for a few before my lights went off and I closed my eyes. It was a productive day, to say the least.