Worlds Apart Ch. 04

Zachary Cortez-Johnson knew that there were rumors about him. What surprised him wasn't that there were rumors - he'd expected as much, being one of only two humans at the school along with her sister Carly, who nowadays had herself a rumored relationship with her swim coach.

No, the rumors Zach was aware of concerned his two roommates. He knew many of the other guys in his class were envious of his supposed luck. Zach's rooming with two girls, they murmured. How does he get that lucky?

A clerical goof, that was how it had happened. Neither he nor Pemma nor Zel had objected. They were adults after all, and all three were in relationships, and there hadn't seemed to be a need to make a big deal out of it.

Apparently some people thought that he was sleeping with both girls, sometimes simultaneously. Zach had to roll his eyes every time he heard that one. For one thing, his girlfriend Debbie was very keen on them making long distance work, despite the light years that separated them.

For two, Pemma and Zel despised one another.

"So what's got them fighting now?" Debbie asked.

Zach turned up the volume in his headphones to drown out the kessa and the enn'cief arguing. "Some new development in the saga. Apparently after Zel slept with Pemma's other half and she retaliated by blowing Zel's favorite, Zel hooked up with the both guys." Zach paused for a moment. "Apparently this is also somehow connected to Zel's appetite. For food, I mean, not just for getting laid."

"You said she's how big?" Debbie asked, leaning back in her chair. She was fresh out of the shower, so she was wearing pajama bottoms and a shirt, attacking her black hair with a brush.

"Five ten, ninety-nine pounds, as she loves to remind me," Zach said. "Apparently that's a lucky combination or something to the enn'cief. I've never checked if she's just been pulling my leg. But she eats like she's got a hole in her leg and never seems to gain any weight, so."

Debbie hummed in acknowledgment. Their weekly vidcomm call was always a nice marker to reach, despite the fact that afternoons on this planet occurred when Debbie was getting up in the mornings for her own university classes. This was also in addition to the messages they sent back and forth to each other almost every day.

"On track for exams?" Debbie asked him as she finished with her hair.

"Just about," Zach said. He looked over beside his computer, where several datapads sat with his textbooks open. "Gonna be a slog."

"You'll get through it," Debbie said warmly. Her phone bipped and she gave it a glance, her expression neutral. "I've got to get going, unfortunately."

"No show?" Zach asked with a pout.

"I never said that," Debbie said, getting up out of her chair. She'd just come from the shower, so when she lifted her shirt over her shoulders her firm, perky tits came into view. Zach took a breath and leaned back in his chair. Debbie winked at him, then turned and slid her pajama bottoms down, treating him to a lovely view of her firm rear and the ghost of the sight of her labia between her legs. She turned in place once, treating him to a view, then blew a kiss at him.

"Love you, Debs," Zach said, his cock hard as iron in his pants.

"Love you too," Debbie said, running her hands up and down her sides. "Think about me tonight."

"And every other night," Zach said.

She blew him another kiss, then pressed the button to disconnect the call. Zach smiled. She always left him like that, and it always made him feel a sense of giddy longing. A part of him had never quite forgiven his parents for moving them to the Galactic Core a couple years previous, when Debbie was still on Mars in the Sol system. The day before they'd left had been his eighteenth birthday, and he and Debbie had said goodbye by losing their virginities to one another. It had been one of the best nights of his life.

Now he was thousands of light years from his beloved, already working on any way he could to return to Mars and be with her. The distance was getting to him. He wanted to have Debbie in his arms again, smell the scent of her tangerine shampoo and run his fingers through her hair. Though he'd be lying if he said he didn't want to do more lewd things to her as well. He'd gone two years only seeing Debbie's chest, for one thing. The thing he wanted to touch immediately after her hair was her tits.

Zach sighed and adjusted himself. He could take care of his erection later. Studying awaited. He made to put on music to drown out Pemma and Zel, then realized they weren't yelling any more.

His door slid open automatically as the pressure pad registered someone. He turned around. Zel stomped into his room, then comically threw herself face first onto Zach's bed. She growled loudly into his sheets.

"Uh, Zel, I'm kind of in the middle of something," Zach said.

"I need a minute," Zel said, rolling over onto her side. Zel was an enn'cief, an anthropoid race that looked like crosses between squirrels and fennec foxes. He didn't like to make sweeping generalizations about the species of the galaxy like his mother did, but all the enn'cief he had encountered at the school had all been rowdy and hyper. Zel was no exception, except she seemed keen on channeling her boundless energy into taking as many people to bed as possible. And as far as the rumors went, she was rather prolific in her appetites.

"You get two," Zach said, leaning back in his chair.

Zel sighed and rolled onto her back. She had dark fur, the same color and luster as a panther. Her big foxy ears were lined with small studs, and she had two talon-like piercings through her lower lip. She dressed in clothes that complimented her fur, dark greens, blues and blacks. Beside her side, her fluffy tail rested on his sheets, the tip twitching every once every few seconds. "Thanks, Zach," she said. "You're cool."

"I thought I heard something about the fridge?" Zach prompted. "Did you eat Pemma's food again?"

"Hey, it's not my fault those vegetable things she makes are so damn good!" Zel protested. "I can't just not eat them." She frowned. "Also I've been so fucking hungry lately. Like every day I feel like I need to eat the whole fridge. Pemma thinks it's... ah, whatever."

Zach leaned forward in his chair slightly, his eyes flicking over the contours of her slim hips. He always wondered if this was her natural color or if she dyed it. On his weaker days he wondered what her figure looked like in more intimate detail. Was her whole body black?

He shook his head, ashamed that his body and mind were going down that path when his girlfriend had just bared everything for him. "You know this is all because you slept with Baryan, right?"

Zel snorted. "I keep saying it, he came onto me, not the other way around. I have the message logs to prove it!" She deepen her voice, mimicking Pemma. "You can fake that stuff easily, you're a computer engineering student. Like that's a fucking excuse." She rolled her eyes. "Give me a break."

"But you still went through with it, though."

"Well, duh." Zel's grin was smug. "He's a male ervicen in his prime. He had a big dick. Of course I'm gonna go through with it. If you're trying to be monogamous in college you're wasting your time -- present company excepted. Settling down is for later, banging three guys at once is for now."

Zach stopped himself before he could ask if she'd ever done that. The answer was probably yes. "Just don't expect her to take this lying down," Zach said. "She'll up the ante on you now."

Zel snorted. "I'd like to see her try." She reached up and scratched at the back of her neck, and Zach noticed that the fur there was thinner, as if she'd been scratching constantly.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Zel snapped. "Just need a nap is all. And some time away from bitchtits." She rolled off Zach's bed and stood up, her long fluffy tail flicking around behind her. Normally it hung casually, but lately it seemed to be creeping up and up even when it was at rest. He'd caught Zel yanking it down as if she didn't have full control of it, like a spasming limb.

"Alright, long as you're sure," Zach said.

Zel gave him a wave as she left, his door shutting firmly behind her. Zach turned back to his computer, trying his best to immerse himself in his work. Exam week was still exam week, no matter what part of the galaxy you were in.

He tried his best to focus on what he was doing, and not let extraneous thoughts into his mind. After coming to the Core he'd decided to major in physics, a decision which he had gone back and forth about whether or not he regretted it or not. He was current in a "didn't regret it" mood. The galaxy was a big place, and there were plenty of places that needed physicists to keep the progress of science going. Particularly back in the human territories in Sol, given that there were only a few hundred thousand humans left nowadays. Things still hadn't quite settled down there yet, from the news he caught snippets of occasionally. The identity of who had turned Earth's orbital defenses against it was still a mystery. Zach held out hope that someday someone would bring the truth to light, but for now it seemed the governing bodies of humanity seemed to content with trying to build up Mars and Colony Victory in orbit above Jupiter as the new epicenters of humanity. They needed everything -- scientists, builders, artisans, but more than anything else, they needed people.

Zach thought about Zel's comment about monogamy, and her "present company excepted" clarification. He didn't know what enn'ceif traditions about coupling and relationships were, but he honestly preferred Pemma's take on it. Ervicen were notoriously traditional in a galaxy where sexuality was often rather fast and loose. And that was what he wanted with Debbie. In a galaxy where humanity wanted to rebuild, he wanted that essential connection, the one thing that transcended all the tragedy of humanity: true, one on one love.

He realized he was thinking about relationship philosophies instead of the laws of gravity, and refocused on his books. However, there was a knock at his door, which meant it was Pemma, because she always knocked. "Come in, Pemma," he called over his shoulder.

The door opened as Zach put up his book and turned around in his chair again. Pemma was an ivory-furred ervicen, not a common color but not an artificial one either. She was also a bit of a bigger girl, though Zach would never count that as a mark against her. She wasn't fat by anyone's measure, but there was a maternal thickness to her chest and hips that was apparently considered incredibly attractive by the deer-like aliens. To Zach, though, her most prominent feature were her eyes. Ervicen had four, a primary pair and a secondary pair, and Pemma's were a clear, pretty blue.

Those four eyes lidded as she sniffed, her nostrils flaring. "Zel came in here?"

"About fifteen minutes ago, then stomped off to her room."

Pemma made a noise of disgust and fanned her nose. "Good, hopefully she stays there. I don't know how she can be in denial about something so obvious."

Zach furrowed his brow. "Is this in reference to you two's argument or something else?"

She made a frustrated gesture with her hand. "In a manner of speaking. Fea is going into heat, and the fact that she refuses to admit it is, frankly, rather irresponsible."

He blinked. "She's going into heat? As in...?"

"As in her body will go through the mammalian process of ovulation, and were she to mate with a male enn'ceif, she would likely conceive. Enn'ceif still get them, despite being evolved mammals. Most of the time they take hormone suppressants to keep the cycle under control." She made a face. "But seeing as Fea seems to come from a more...rough and tumble background, where they might not have informed her of such things." She sniffed. "She's in denial. I'm a bio student, I damn well know what I'm talking about. It's already manifesting itself! Her increased appetite for food, her inability to control her sexual urges. When it hits in force she'd better keep herself locked up tight."

Zach nodded. There was the connection. "Why should she?"

Pemma's scowl deepened a little. "Because enn'cief hormones drive other mammals crazy. It's a latent evolution from when they were still feral creatures. The first female goes into the cycle naturally, then the pheromones trigger the cycle in every other enn'cief that inhales them. Massive breeding events follow, lots of little babies six months later." She sniffed. "It's a common thing in the pornography coming out of their culture."

Zach blinked. "You have to watch enn'cief porn?"

"Not just. All kinds." Pemma rolled her eyes. "It's required for some reason. I've had a word with the professors about the curriculum, but they maintain it's necessary to understand the 'psychology of reproduction.' I'm trying to become a scientist, dammit, not a filth connoisseur." She sighed. "Then again, I have plenty of time for it now, seeing as Zel ruined everything with Baryan."

"If you're so sure Zel's coming up on one of those...heat cycles as you call them... do you think that maybe Baryan just couldn't resist? Are the pheromones that powerful?"

Pemma shrugged one shoulder. "I don't know. Nor do I think I want to know. I just want to move on with my life, move past all of this. Him and I are done, that's for certain."

Zach set his jaw. He felt like he should argue against that, like such a transgression was worth trying to make amends for. Then again, he'd become rather familiar with couples who remained unfaithful to each other in recent times. His own parents were sleeping around on one another, he was almost certain. If they couldn't make it work, who was he to offer Pemma platitudes about how everything would work out?

So Zach simply nodded. "It's your choice."

Pemma actually smiled at him, a rarity, and Zach felt like he'd said the right thing. "You understand, Zach. Thank you." She turned and padded towards the door. "I won't keep you. Have a good night."

"You too, Pemma."

After she left, Zach tried to refocus on his numbers and his studies, but they swirled around in his head, mixing with his complicated thoughts about his family and his friends. Eventually, he couldn't stand it, and slapped the datapad down on the desk with a grunt of frustration. He got up and paced for a while, until all that remained in his head was numbers and theories. He was able to get some work done, until the need to sleep overcame him and he padded off to bed.

The next day, after coming back from a workout at the campus gym, Zach knew that something was up when he heard voices in the apartment dorm's kitchen after pushing the door open. He dropped his bag by the door and walked inside to find Pemma seated at the table with two kessa, a male and a female, wearing shirts with the university's sigil on the lapel. They all turned to him. "Ah, Mister Cortez-Johnson," the male kessa said. "Glad you could join us."

Zach blinked. "Hi. What's all this about?"

"I'm right, that's what it's about," Pemma said, folding her arms with a triumphant look in her eye.

The female kessa shot Pemma a look. "Pemma told us that she appraised you of her thoughts on Zel possibly entering a heat cycle. Earlier Zel called us to complain that she wasn't feeling well, and the first campus medical staff sent over she almost mauled in her attempt to get...well, as she put it, 'something in her to quench the fire.' She's in heat."

Pemma seemed to radiate smugness. Zach looked down the hallway towards their rooms. "How long will she be?"

The male kessa shrugged one shoulder. "Could be a few days, could be a week. We're not sure. But we came to talk to you two about what you wish to do. It'd be possible for us to move her to a sterile facility, but it seems like harsh treatment for her. She's not carrying anything that's lethal, merely going through a natural biological process. She's still fully in control of her mental faculties, but it's difficult for enn'cief in heat to resist sexual impulses when they're around others. And since the cycle has already begun, there's no way to suppress it with hormones. The only real thing for her to do is isolate herself and wait it out."

"What about her exams?" Zach asked.

"She'll have to take them when the cycle has passed. These are extenuating circumstances after all."

Zach looked down the hall again. "What about us then?"

"Well, that's what we wanted to ask you about. We can put you up in empty rooms in the administration area so you can study without distraction."

"What about Zel?"

"She'll have to stay here. It's better if we don't move her." The female kessa tapped the table. "If you're concerned for her you're welcome to stay."

"No thanks, we'll leave it in your control," Pemma said. She sounded giddy at the prospect of leaving.

The idea of being around a horny, borderline out of control enn'cief wasn't exactly his idea of a good time, but the idea of just leaving Zel didn't sit right with him. You didn't just abandon others when they needed your help. That's what his parents had taught him. His parents had also taught him to be faithful to the object of his affections, and look how well that had turned out for them.

But this wasn't about his parents, nor their floundering relationship. This was about his friend who might need his help. Zach's jaw clenched. "I'll stay. She's going to have a rough time, and she'll need support. Plus, Zel doesn't know how to cook worth a damn."

Pemma shot him a look. "Are you sure you know what you're doing, Zach?"

"Come on, Pem, she deserves to have someone looking after her. She's not sick, just going through something biological. Plus, I don't think I'll be able to focus in a space that's not my own. And what if she hurts herself? Someone's gotta be able to help her."

"You don't owe her anything, Zach," Pemma said. "Be reasonable."

"She's still my friend," he snapped at her. "And I want to make sure she's okay."

Pemma glowered at him. "Fine. Be that way. But I'm leaving for the week." Pemma got up forcefully and stomped off down the hall towards her room.

The kessa gave him a crash course in what to expect from Fea: let her be isolated, avoid getting close to her, and above all else, don't go into her room where all her scent and pheromones were. Then Pemma emerged from her room with a duffel bag over her shoulder, and she left with the kessa, leaving Zach alone in the living room. Strangely, the house felt calmer than it had in ages now that one of the two girls was gone.

The first thing he did was wander over to Zel's door. It had been locked from the inside, and didn't open when he drew close. He tapped on it with a knuckle. "Zel? It's me, Zach. You okay in there?"

There was silence for an agonizingly long time. Just as Zach was about to knock again, something heavy slammed into the door, making Zach jump backwards. He heard the sound of heavy breathing, and something scraped against the door. "Zach." Zel's voice was ragged and breathy. "What are you doing here?"

"I stayed here to keep an eye on you," he said, trying to calm down his marathon-running heart. "Pemma's gone off with some university staff to housing away from here."

Zel laughed, and it sounded like a witch's cackle. "Well, thanks, Zach. Glad to know I've got at least one fucking friend left." He heard something thud against the door lightly, as if Zel was leaning against it. "You know, I'm trying really, really hard to resist the urge to undo the lock on this door."

Zach took a giant step backwards. "Please continue to try really hard."

"I can still smell you," Fea panted. "Stupid fucking biology. Feels like my snatch is on fucking fire."