Worlds Apart Ch. 01

Eric Cortez-Johnson watched as the clock ticked over to three P.M. At least when he and his family had relocated out of the Sol system they'd picked a planet which, coincidentally, had a twenty-four hour day/night cycle. It had made settling into a rhythm that much easier. Also, it helped that he had some regular events to look forward to.

He leaned back in his gel padded chair, sliding backwards about a foot from his desk. It brought him just in line with the hallway outside his office. He made the pretense of stretching, leaning back in his chair and glancing to his left down the hall.

Right on schedule, Teska Davrini appeared from the hallway that was perpendicular to the water cooler. She was a quarral, one of the Federation races. Blue skin, thin figures, pointy elf ears with golden eyes. Teska kept her silver hair cut short, almost a buzz cut. Two spherical earrings swayed under her pointed ears, and she wore typical quarral work garb, which Eric often had difficulty divorcing from his image of what ladies of the evening wore. Teska always wore blouses with sweaters and skirts, but the skirts ended at mid-thigh. Under them snaked several bits of fabric that connected to some stockings on her legs that she'd explained to Eric were standard quarral attire. To him and his humane perspective they looked like lingerie.

Teska used a refillable water bottle, which she refilled five times a day: once when she walked in, once at mid-morning, once at lunch, once at three in the afternoon and one final time as she left for the day. The three PM filling was the only time that Eric was in his office to watch. He only knew about her water times because they'd been working on the same set of spreadsheets for the last couple weeks and had gotten to talking. She had no idea how he stared at her.

As she did every day, Teska bent over to reach the water dispenser, and just like always, her skirt was drawn taut over her ass as she did so. Eric could see the outline of the quarral not-lingerie beneath the skirt, including the triangle of fabric that rose out of the cleft of her ass. Today he couldn't tell what color it was - sometimes the skirts were just the right color that when the light hit them Eric could tell the color of Teska's unmentionables. However, today he just enjoyed the view, feeling a profound sense of loss as the quarral straightened up.

Unlike most days, however, today Teska decided to turn around rather than just heading back to her desk. She blinked as she saw him leaning out his office doorway, obviously staring in her direction.

Eric quickly threw his arms up, making a big show like he was just taking five and stretching. He even faked a yawn for good measure. When he looked back down at the water cooler, Teska was still looking at him. She didn't look mad - in fact her expression was surprisingly neutral. Eric quickly scooted himself back into his office, sitting upright at his computer and cursing himself. He should've seen that coming. One day she was bound to see him staring. It wasn't like he went to great lengths to conceal himself. He didn't exactly know what constituted sexual harassment this far out in the galaxy. As he'd found out many times in the year since leaving Earth, human standards were very different than what a lot of the galaxy did. You could go between two different planets populated by the same dominant species and both planets would have a different set of customs regarding the same thing. Then again it wasn't as though they'd completely divorced themselves from human standards. If Angie found out about him ogling another woman - an alien woman at that - there'd be hell to pay.

"Eric?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin as Teska's light voice came from the entrance to his office. He quickly composed himself and spun around in his chair. "Teska! Hi. What's up?"

The quarral leaned against his door. She still had her water bottle in her hand, slender fingers wrapped around the plastic. "What were you doing just now?" she asked, a silver eyebrow arched. Every time she moved a facial muscle her earrings moved.

"I was just stretching," Eric lied, sticking to his story. "I've been sitting here all day and I was starting to cramp up."

"Some stretch," Teska said. She tipped her water bottle back to her lips, and Eric was distracted by the undulations of her Adam's apple. Teska finished her sip and recapped the bottle.

"Well, you know. Been number crunching for a few hours on those spreadsheets for Shaira."

Teska nodded. "Most of those are completely redundant. They'll be outdated information in a few months. I honestly wonder why we even bother with them."

"Why were you guys so behind again?" Eric asked.

Teska made a dismissive motion with her hand. "Large restructuring that took a couple months longer than anyone anticipated. We lost a lot of people in the move."

Eric smirked. "Even out here in space corporate bullshit is still corporate bullshit."

Teska nodded. Just then Eric's computer dinged, at the same time as Teska's wrist computer bipped. Both of them checked their messages. It was a message from their boss Shaira addressed to both of them, containing another two hundred spreadsheets to go through.

Teska grimaced for a fraction of a second before she smoothed her face out. "Really." It seemed like it should have been phrased as a question, but her voice was flat and emotionless.

"Can she do that?" Eric asked. "Just drop all that on us?"

"Yes," Teska said. She sighed, though it just sounded like a quick inhale and exhale of breath. "I'll go talk to her and see if I can't offload this to someone else, or at least delegate a bit to someone else. This is too much for just the both of us."

She turned and left Eric's office, and he spun back around in his chair. Despite that fact that much more work had just been dropped on him, he was secretly relieved. Teska seemed to have bought his story about just stretching, lame as it had been. The quarral was dry and reserved, but she was damn good with numbers. Shaira had put them together on a simple project when he'd first taken the job at Exkawray, and they'd gotten things done quickly enough that they kept getting put together. Given their recent deluge of spreadsheets to pick through, it seemed as though that had been a double edged sword. He didn't mind spending time with Teska though. Or looking at her ass. It wasn't like he had a chance to look at many nowadays - real-life ones at least, instead of the ones on the extranet. He could barely remember the last time Angie had been even close to naked around him.

The rest of the day faded into the fuzz of numbers and busywork, his thoughts occasionally wandering back to Teska's rear. When the day was done, he got up and took the elevator downstairs to the lobby, packed into the elevator surrounded by members of the core Federation races - the avian tasheps, the four-armed oraks, and blue-skinned quarrals. Teska was one of them.

As he left and made his way to one of the automated public vehicles that would take him home his communicator bipped. He pulled the small device out of his pocket, and saw an audio message from Teska. He opened the file and put the device up to his ear. "Eric, Teska here. I could not convince Shaira to redistribute any of the workload. I know you've left for the day, so come by my office tomorrow so we can make a plan."

Short, sweet, to the point. Teska in a nutshell. Eric hopped into one of the automated taxis and tapped his address into the computer. He leaned back as the vehicle began to move, taking him home. And as always, the dread started creeping in.

Dinner in his household was a reserved affair. With both of his children transferred to the planet's Federation University campus, it was just him and his wife of twenty years Angelica for dinner. It was routine, domestic and safe.

He dreaded it every night.

It wasn't that he didn't love Angie any more. Well, that was a lie. There was some love lost between the two of them. It had faded away over time, bit by bit. That Day had dealt it a severe blow, and Eric's insistence that they move away from the horrifying sight of what Earth had become. He was beginning to suspect that Angie had only agreed because, even six months after, she was still numb with shock. Every human being had been. But to move from Sol, humanity's home system, to the core of Federation space, surrounded by billions of aliens, likely was starting to wear on Angie.

"I keep telling those oraks next door that they need to turn down the bass on whatever they're piping their music through," Angie said, plating the vegetables she'd sauteed. "I keep feeling the foundations of the house vibrate."

"Could it be that you're imagining things?" Eric asked, slicing the ploer meat he'd grilled on the small flippable countertop grill. "I never hear anything."

"I am not imagining things," Angie sniffed. "I don't know what they're doing every evening but it's driving me mad."

"I'll have a talk with them if it'll make you feel better." Eric moved over to the table, setting the carved meat on the plates. He turned around and looked at Angie's back. Her skin was light brown, her hair a deep black with some red color left at the tips from a dye job several months ago. At this point in her life she had a full figure, a neat hourglass that still drew his eye to certain parts. But he didn't feel that rush that he had when he'd first met her on the beaches of Cancun, or during the first few years of their marriage when the kids were young.

But now the kids were in college, and only came home every other weekend. It was just the two of them, in their house outside the city millions of light-years from where they'd been born, him with his accounting job and her with her psychiatry job. He'd thought that with all her smarts in psychiatry she'd be able to deal with the mounting problems with their marriage that she had to know were there.

But dinner went as normal, small talk and daily anecdotes. Angie made a comment about quarrals that rubbed Eric the wrong way, but he let it slide as he always did. Afterwards they cleaned up and put the dishes away - at least they did that as a couple - and retreated to their respective corners: Angie to the couch with a book and a glass of wine and Eric to his office to kill time on the computer.

As he sat in his chair skimming the news he realized that he wanted to look up the thing again. He navigated to the search bar and pulled up the model he'd become fascinated with. She was a quarral with a pretty face, clear blue-white eyes, her silver hair cut short into a pixie cut that framed some very long ears. She was posed demurely in the photos, wearing a lacy negligee, her erect nipples poking up against the inside of the brassiere and the bottom's pulled into the cleft of her rump.

Eric adjusted himself, unzipping his fly and drawing out his thickening erection. He cast a quick glance at the door to make sure it was locked, then settled into the chair as he clicked through the photos to the ones where she lost the lingerie, her ebony pussy and nipples bared for the world. He leaned back in the chair and did what he had to, the quarral on the computer screen becoming Teska, bent over in front of him as she took him all the way in. A part of him wondered what she was like during sex. Was she still quiet and reserved, or was there a wild side to her? Either way, the prospect delighted him in a way that sex with Angie just couldn't anymore, and he was soon jerking and keeping his breathing quiet as he spurted all over his hand.

Afterward, he snuck into the bathroom to clean himself up. He stared at himself in the mirror for a time - tan skin, brown hair starting to go a bit gray, a sturdy face with not too square of a jaw and not too much extra padding. He was still a handsome man. Angie was still an attractive woman. So why was she spending her evenings on the couch reading while he jerked off to alien camgirls?

Because he knew that something was missing, but just couldn't put his finger on what.

The next day, Eric went to Teska's office first thing. The quarral was already there, busy tapping away at her computer keyboard. He blinked as he took stock of what she was wearing - a black dress made out of a shimmering fabric that caught and reflected the light. She still wore those damnable stocking things, the lacy bits hugging the contours of her thighs as they met with the stockings on her lower legs.

Eric composed himself and rapped on the door. "Morning, Teska."

Teska stopped typing and swiveled around, crossing her legs as she did. The motion was smooth and precise, her chair rotating just enough so that when it stopped she was fully facing Eric. "Good morning, Eric," she nodded, a small smile on her lips.

"You look nice today," he said, the compliment flying out before he could stop it.

She laced her fingers in her lap, inclining her head ever so slightly to the side. "Thank you. I chose this attire hoping that a more professional appearance would help persuade Shaira to adjust the workload distributed to us." Teska's mouth flattened slightly. "Unfortunately, I was wrong."

"So we still have to do all that?" Eric groaned.

"Unfortunately, yes. And even less fortunate, she dropped a deadline on us. We have to have them finished by tomorrow."

Eric went slackjawed. "What?"

Teska held up a finger. "Well, technically by midnight tomorrow. The client needs them for a conference meeting on Roth VI the day after. So if we cannot finish them by the end of the normal workday tomorrow, we'll have to stay late and finish them then."

Eric was about to complain, but then he realized that he'd have an excuse to avoid going home to his frosty, boring house for at least two days. Silver linings, right?

He took a deep breath, then huffed it out through his nostrils. "Alright. Let's get it done then."

Teska nodded, her smile growing a bit. "Your enthusiasm is infectious. I'll send you the first set."

Then he had an idea. "Actually, let me ask you something." He pointed to the side of Teska's office, where a table sat with some hard disks resting on it but was otherwise empty. "Maybe I could move my computer in here and hook up to your drive. Plus there won't be any need for us to walk back and forth to each other's offices if I'm right here."

Teska looked off into space for a moment, as if mulling over the suggestion. Then she nodded. "Likely much more efficient, too. I'll clear the table."

Eric hurried back to his office, a spring in his step as he gathered up his collapsable computer and shoulder bag. When he got back to Teska's office she'd moved the hard disks down to the floor underneath her own desk, leaving the space clear for Eric. She'd also managed to find a small, yet cushy chair.

"Arius down the hall is still on vacation," Teska said, patting the faux leather. "I'm sure he won't mind us borrowing this for a couple days."

Eric set up his workstation and settled down into the chair, acutely aware of his proximity to Teska. The quarral passed him the first set of datasheets, and they set to work. The morning flew by, each of them absorbed into the rows and columns of numbers, cross-referencing everything with official records to make sure they were accurate. Table after table, sheet after sheet was checked and re-checked.

When lunch rolled around, Eric leaned back and rubbed at his eyes. "I'm going to be seeing numbers in my sleep," he muttered.

Teska giggled - well, her conservative version of a giggle, a low, soft "ha ha." She stood up and stretched, and Eric's eyes flicked to how far up her blue thighs the dress went. She grabbed her water bottle. "Hopefully your dreams aren't affected."

Unless the blue alien pussy I dream about starts reciting quadratic equations, I think I'm good. Eric stood up and let her brush past him out of the office, stepping out into the hall to stretch his legs. "I'm going to get food, Teska. Want anything?"

"Some fruit, if you wouldn't mind," she answered. Eric nodded. Teska turned and strode down the hall towards the water fountain. Eric watched her go the whole way, eyes lingering on her ass and thighs.

He went and got food for them both, and by the time he got back Teska was already back at it. She graciously accepted the fruit he'd gotten her, eating slowly with one hand and typing with the other. Eric wolfed down the sandwich he'd gotten, loosened his tie a little, and dove back into the numbers. The two of them worked until the end of the day. Eric leaned back in his chair and rolled his fingers, trying to get some feeling back into them. "Damn, this is rough."

"And we're only..." Teska checked. "A third of the way done."

Eric groaned and let his head flop against the desk next to his computer. "Argh."

He felt a hand caress his shoulder. "Go home, Eric. I can afford to stay. You have a wife to get back to."

Eric raised his head. Teska dropped her hand and went back to tapping away at her own computer. "You sure?"

Teska had her tiny smile on again. "I'm sure."

Eric looked at the clock. "I can stay for another hour," he said, rolling his shoulders pulling up the next spreadsheet. "Honestly I think I'd rather be here than at home."

"You'd rather be here working than at home with your wife?" Teska blinked. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"It's complicated," Eric said. "You don't need to worry about it." He looked over at her and smiled. "I like your company."

"I..." Teska began. She looked at the wall, and Eric thought he faintly heard her murmur "hmm" before she turned back to her computer and her work. They maintained silence after that, as one by one their coworkers left the building.

Eventually, the hour was up, and Eric stretched. "Well, that's it for me," he said. "You staying later?"

Teska paused, then slowly saved her work and stood. "No. I think I'll retire for the evening and sleep well. Tomorrow though, we both have to stay to push through to the end."

Eric nodded. "So I'll see you then."

"Indeed."

"Where the hell were you?" Angie asked as he walked through the door.

"I was at work," Eric said, hanging his shoulder bag on the hook by the door. "I needed to stay late to work on something with Teska."

Her brow furrowed. "Teska? Who's that?"

Eric frowned. "My quarral coworker. The one I've been working on a project with the last month?"

Angie made a "tch" noise with her teeth at the mention of Teska's species. "Well, I went ahead and made dinner. It's on the table if you want some." She turned and stalked off, likely headed to the couch for her glass of wine and book.

Eric sulked into the kitchen and grabbed the plate off the counter, wolfing down the meat and vegetables. He moved over to the bay window to the backyard, and stared out over his backyard at the city in the distance beyond. He heard something, and angled his head to the right. Sure enough, there was a loud noise coming from the house next door. It was a steady bass beat, the kind that undercuts popular electronic music. A steady rhythm that reminded him of fucking.

His mind wandered back to Teska, at how nice she had smelled within the cramped office space. He was certain Angie wasn't suspicious of her because she thought there was something afoot. No, Angie was suspicious of Teska just because she was a quarral.

Well fine, if that's how she wanted to be. She hadn't touched him in ages, and he was a man with needs who didn't have to put up with a speciesist wife. He set his plate in the sink, and left without washing it. He didn't even acknowledge Angie as he walked past her into his office. Once there, he didn't pull up the quarral model again. Rather, he pulled up his messenger program and fired off an inquiry to Teska. I've decided to head in early tomorrow, Teska. Want me to pick you up in the autocar on the way around seven-ish? We'll have to stay late anyways, but not as late if we do this.